


Ever Present Past

by mrs_pennylane



Category: niko kovac - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-03 03:38:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 53,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2836697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_pennylane/pseuds/mrs_pennylane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eva Strauss and Niko Kovac met each other at a party in Berlim through his brother, Robert. They dated for months until Eva moved away to USA. 14 years later and she comes back to Germany to take care of her sick father and meets Niko again. How will they handle the situation?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

_Prologue - year: 2000_

 

 

Eva fixed her dress for the last time and stepped out of the car to get into the party. She was wearing her red silk dress, which made her look a bit curvy, and her favorite black stilletos. She had never been to parties being thrown by football players so she felt a little awkward to go into a place she barely knew a person. Of course she had been invited by her good friend, Robert Kovac, who was also a player, but she knew he would be too busy having fun to give her attention. Still she went to the party anyway.

Upon arriving at the place, she was greeted with loud music and lots of people talking. To her surprise, there were a lot of people there that she met at other parties and some of them greeted her with a kiss on the cheek or a wave. She struggled to get through the people on the dancing floor, but finally she found Robert, who was chatting with another guy.

“Rob!” she greeted him and they hugged each other.

“Hey Eva, I’m glad you came!” he answered and turned to the other guy. “Niko, this is Eva Strauss.” he pointed to her.

“Eva, this is my brother, Niko Kovac.”

They shook hands for a moment and he smiled at her. Eva was amazed that he had such a beautiful smile. He wasn’t exactly a handsome guy, he looked a bit… diifferent, but his smile was so beautiful that she could look at him smiling the whole day. Unlike his brother and the other people at the party, he wasn’t wearing fancy clothes, just a white shirt with a jacket, and blue jeans.

“I was talking about you to Niko, I said you’re a quite interesting lady!” Rob said and Niko looked interested at her. Eva shyly smiled to him.

“Nice to meet you, Niko.”

“It’s nice to meet you too.” he answered back, giving her a small wink.

They talked for a while but soon the brothers left to greet people who were arriving and Eva was left alone. She chatted with a group of people here and there, drank some alcohol, danced, flirted a bit and started to feel very comfortable at the party when a hand touched the small of her back. She turned around and was face to face with Niko.

“Hello again.” he said, his voice now a bit hoarse, probably from the drinking and talking.

“Hello.” Eva answered a bit out of breath with all the physical contact they were having. His hand on her back wasn’t demanding or unconvenient but sexy and she couldn’t even refrain herself from leaning on him. His lips went straight to her ear.

“Wanna go outside?”

She didn’t answer, she just gave him her hand and he opened space on the crowd of people dancing, guiding her to the backyard that incredibly empty. When she stepped outside, a chilling breeze passed through them and she figured out why there were so many people inside the house. Niko stopped for a moment and turned to her.

“First of all, how old are you?” he asked.

“I’m 21 years old, why?” she answered a bit confused.

“Okay. Okay. It’s just that there are a lot of very young girls inside and I don’t want to have troubles tonight.”

Eva laughed a bit at that and kept looking at him. God, was she about to make out with a football player? That was a first on her book. Actually, she hadn’t dated many guys in her life.

“Another question: is that what you want?”.

For some reason, his voice showed a bit of insecurity and she was very confused. I mean, wasn’t this commom for men like him?

“Well, you are not seeing me fighting against you, so…” Eva said, laughing a bit at that situation. It was kinda awkward.

“No, yeah, you’re right. God, am I this drunk? What am I saying?” he brushed off whatever that was troubling him and grabbed her hand again, and led her to a car that was parked on the street.

They arrived at the car and as soon as they got on the backseat, she grabbed him by the jacket and started kissing him hard. His hands went instantly to her ass and he lifted her so she was sitting on his lap. Eva rocked her hips a bit so she could feel his erection and received a small groan from him, followed by a soft bite on her lip.

Niko’s hand went from her ass to her legs and he lifted her dress to take off her underwear. He took them off and took his time caressing her legs, making his way to her pussy, slowly, softly.

“Oh Niko.” she whispered against his lips and felt his cock twitching on her ass. “I can’t wait for you to be inside of me.”

His fingers found her wet entrance and caressed teasingly until he entered one finger. Eva moaned loudly and rocked her hips again, this time harder and non-stoping. He fingered her slowly at first and then stronger, inserting two, three fingers. Niko was so skilled at fingering her that soon enough she was arching her back and screaming his name. Everybody outside must have heard her screams, but fuck logic, who cares about that? After all, they were at a party that most of people would end up sleeping with each other at the end of the night.

She came hard on his hand and clutched his shoulders, trying to take control of her body but failed miserably. Never had a man made her cum this way. Her hands found their way to his crotch and she squeezed it hard, then proceeded to open his ziper to free his cock.

Eva was quite impressed by the cock in front of her: thick, medium size and veiny. He looked glorious. She gave it a hard stroke and Niko squeezed her thigh, his mouth hanging open, his eyes closed tighly. There was a drop of pre-cum on the tip of his cock and she used her index finger to spread it all over the tip, and he moaned. She started stroking him ligthly but insistent and noticed that he was looking directly at her hands working on his shaft, moving his hips to meet her movements.

Then he grabbed her wrist, forcing her to stop what she was doing.

“If you keep doing that, I’ll cum all over you dress and the fun will be over too soon.” he said and turned her so she was facing him, fully sat on his lap, his cock rubbing lightly her pussy. From the smell of his skin to the touch of his hands, everything seemed so exquisitive and sexy, and she wanted nothing more than to be fucked by him. She kissed him hard and saw him fumbling through his pockets and took out a condom from one of them.

Eva took the condom from his hands and opened the packet with her teeth, and put it on his cock, teasing him a bit.

“I like that you’re dominant, Eva.” he whispered against her hair, his hands firm on her waist. She herself guided his cock to her entrance and sat down slowly, getting used to him inside of her.

They started with a slow pace, his cock going completely outside and then deep inside her pussy. Her clit touched his groin every time she moved on top of him, which was making her feel like her body was on fire. But Niko picked up a faster pace and started to fuck her, his hands alternating from grabbing her ass to her hips, when his pace was even faster. Nothing could have prepared her for this night. Like she had thought before, he wasn’t exactly handsome but he was definitely sexy. Well, at least during sex. His voiced echoed on the car, saying dirty things, how tight she was, how good it was to be fucking her, moaning, cursing.

One of Niko’s hands went down to her clit and rubbed it again while trying to thrust into her pussy. She was so horny that it didn’t take too long and she was cuming again, convulsioning on his prick. He moaned loud at the feeling of her pussy tighting around him and gave a few powerful thrusts before cuming, making a complete mess of himself.

She kissed his lips lightly before demanding entrance to his mouth with her tongue and he granted access, his tongue meeting hers on a hot and messy kiss. They kissed until Eva broked it and gasped for air.

“Wow, Eva, that was a surprise.” Niko said and cupped her face with both of his hands. “Want to spend the rest of the night with me?”

And she accepted. That night turned into other nights, that turned into days and when they both realized, they were already dating. Robert was so happy to know they were dating that he threw a party (For some reason, Robert loved parties) for them and couldn’t stop saying how much he thought they fit together and how much he loved the idea of having her on the family.

She fell in love hard for him and even though she didn’t like football, she enjoyed looking at him playing for his team and how passionate he was about his career. It was inspiring and she found herself supporting every decision he made. He was also very present in her life, watching her modeling and taking pictures - which was quite boring but he went anyway - for magazines. Nevertheless, he never hided from her that he thought she would be happier on another career, since she struggled so much with some aspects of the modeling world.

Eva dated Niko for a year and very tough circumstances on her life demanded her to make decisions she didn’t really want to make. In the storm of her parents’ divorce, she decided to move away with her mom from Germany to USA. Niko didn’t seem to take the news that harshly, or if he did, he hided pretty well, and they decided not to break up before her depart.

On the last 2 months before she went to USA, everything seemed a bit dramatic: he gave her long kisses when she was distracted, he made love to her slowly, as if they would never ever seen each other again - that seemed a bit likely - and they hardly fought. And when she had to leave, she felt like there was something stuck in her throat and she couldn’t even say anything to him. How could she? She was leaving him afterall. There was a silent goodbye between them and she left.

She still could remember how sad he looked, a bit disapointed, judging her silently, and that would bother her for years.


	2. One

_Year: 2014_

 

 

Eva felt herself waking up slowly and adjusted her body again on the chair, moaning at the sign of pain when she moved her neck from one side to another. She kept her eyes closed, the book she was reading still on her hands, her glasses on, and tried to sleep again.

“You’re gonna have a nasty body ache when you fully wake up.” she heard a voice coming from the direction where her father laid. Eva opened her eyes, feeling a bit dizzy from the lack of a good night of sleep, and it took her a bit to focus on the image in front of her. She couldn’t actually believe what was happening.

“You will get well, my friend. But you need to take care of yourself, okay?” said the man in front of her holding her father’s hand.

“I will, I promise.” her father answered. “But I need to know if you’re going to do what I ask you? It’s important for me.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” the man said and looked at her. She really couldn’t believe that after 14 years, she would see that face again.

“Niko?” Eva raised from the chair looking straight to him. As he had said, she felt a strong pain on her back. Niko didn’t say anything but gave her a nod indicating that she should follow him outside the room.

“Take care, I’ll come visit you as soon as possible.” he said, before leaving the room.

“I’ll be right back, daddy.” she said to her father and kissed his cheek.

She followed Niko to the empty corridor and they looked at each other for a moment. She was dumbfounded by the fact that he was there, in person, looking more charming than she remembered and visiting her father. A few questions were troubling her mind but she was cut off before asking any.

“It’s good to see you, Eva.” Niko said in a very low voice, leaning against the wall.

“It’s good to see you too.” she answered. She didn’t know how to act since everything seemed very awkward between them, but she had to ask what was bothering her the most. “What are you doing here?”

“Your father asked me to help you take care of him…” he paused and then, “ And to take care of you too.”

 _What?_ was all that came to her mind. Since when did she need someone to take care of her?

“I don’t understand.” she simply said. Niko lead her out of the corridor and to a coffee shop that was inside the hospital.

“Your father called me a week ago, said he had a heart attack and was in the hospital. He was waiting for you to come from the US.” Niko said after they found a table and ordered their coffees.

“I go that, Niko. I just don’t understand why he called you.” she didn’t want to sound rude or sound as if he shouldn’t be there. She was just curious.

“Well, after you left, your father and I became really good friends. He’s a huge soccer fan, you know.” She definitely knew that because when she told him she was dating Niko, back in 2000, he was very happy about it. “And he said I was one of the few people he trusted enough to tell about his health, so here I am.”

“My father never told me you two kept in contact with each other.” Eva said quietly, refusing to look at him in the eyes.

“That is because I asked him not to.” At that comment, Eva looked at Niko and thought that for a moment he looked a bit sad, but it was just a moment indeed, because soon his face was serious again.

“Can I ask you why?” Eva tried.

“Because I got married months after you left and I didn’t want you to come back. It would be hella awkward.” he answered and gave her a small smile, to which she replied with another smile, a sad one. So he was always in contact with her father but that was always hidden from her. Ouch, that hurted a bit.

“Okay.”

“And he asked me to take care of you. From the looks of it, I think he has a point.”

“Excuse me?” she asked outraged.

“Come on Eva, you have been sleeping in that chair next to him for days and I am sure you haven’t been eating properly. Am I right?” Niko asked back, looking sharply at her.

“Yeah, that’s true, but…” she answered but was cut off midway.

“So why don’t trust a friend, huh? After all, it was your father’s request.”  
Eva looked at him surprised. She never thought that he would ever refer to her as his friend, not after all that happened, and she felt inclined to accept his help. But her pride was bigger.

“Look Niko, I’m glad to see you here. I really am. But I don’t need any help, okay? I’m fine and I can take care of daddy pretty well.” she answered. Their order arrived and Eva grabbed her cup of coffee and began leaving the table, but Niko grabbed her wrist softly.

“Can you at least leave your phone number? In case you change your mind.” Niko’s expression wasn’t of angryness or sadness, but annoyed at her reaction. She didn’t mind, to be honest. They didn’t spoke for years when they could have if she knew he was her father’s friend and now he’s here offering to be her friend? She knew she had her share of guilt in all of that stuff but honestly, she was _pissed off_ for never having the chance to apologize.

Eva asked for his phone and saved her number on it.

“Here it’s.” she handled it back to him. Before coming back to her father’s room, she went to the cashier and paid her coffee. She knew he was looking at her from far but she refused to even make eye contact. “This was all too fast” she thought to herself. It was too fast indeed: less than a week she came back to Germany and found her father sick on a hospital bed, and that alone left her really sad. Then out of nowhere, Niko Kovac, the only man she ever fell in love with, said he was there to help her and _take care of her_. She felt confused and a bit _angry_.

Eva returned to her daddy’s bedside and continued to read her book. She was trying not to think about Niko and all that he represented in her life but it was hard especially when her book was getting a bit tedious. She brushed off her thoughts and went to the cafeteria to buy something to eat. She seatled for a turkey sandwich and a soda but that was hardly something she wanted to eat. As always in her goddamn life, she felt miserable.

As soon as she arrived back in the room, her phone buzzed in the pocket and she picked it up. “1 new message” said on the screen of her phone and she opened it.

_You know you’re acting childish. - Niko_

She looked at the message for a moment before typing the answer.

_And you’re very persistent. - E._

Moments later, her phone buzzed again.

_I am. But let me guess… I bet you’re alone in that goddamn room, with a book, drinking coffee and eating a dry sandwich. - N._

Well, he was right. Except for one thing.

_I’m not drinking coffee, you were wrong.- E._

_But you bought coffee. Did you threw it away? - N._

_I wasn’t in the mood to drink coffee anymore, so yeah, I threw it away. - E._

_Anyway, I got 3 of 4, I won. - N._

_I got the others right? That’s sad. - N._

_I am studying, as matter of fact. - E._

_Oh my God, are you serious? In a hospital? That’s not the Eva Strauss I met. - N._

She snorted at that message and tried not to laugh too loud so she wouldn’t wake up her father. A side of her was beginning to soften to Niko.

_I’m serious. I got boring Niko, you should go away, I’m not all glamour anymore. - E._

She laughed at her own message and looked at her father. He slept peacefully and seemed to look better than the day she arrived there, which relieved her. Still his health was fragile and the doctor needed to make a few exams on him, so she told him she would stay there as long as he needed.

 _It’s good to know that._ Another messaged arrived on her phone _. I was never glamurous, was I? - N._

_Eva, let me help you, please. Let me, at least, take you out to have a decent dinner tomorrow. - N._

She was resistent to him and decided not to answer his message. Eva laid down on the sofa next to the bed, thinking. Her head, as usual, started to hurt but she ignored and closed her eyes. Before drifting off she grabbed her phone and typed a single word that meant giving away from her pride.

_Ok. - E._


	3. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, the names of Niko’s wife and daughter. I debated a little inside of my head whether I should use their real name or invent one. I decided to change their names, for safety and privacy purposes. Second, (and I forgot to say this when I published the story) I don’t know if your guys noticed but I didn’t describe Eva’s appearence. It’s not a story’s hole, it was a decision I made. I thought that perhaps if Eva didn’t have a particular characteristic then you could identify yourself with her and feel more close to the story. Dunno if I was successful on that.

On the next day, Eva woke up to the sound of the nurse calling her to tell that her father was going to take some exams to know how he was reacting to the medicine and that he would return to the bedroom by lunch time. She didn’t have much to do, so she decided to take some air and buy new flowers to put next to her father’s bed.

Her mind wandered to the memories she had with Niko. When they were together, they were hardly the perfect couple but they got along pretty well and had a lot in commom. Everything was very intense at the time and she felt like he was the only man she would ever fall in love with in her entire life. That’s how you feel when you fall in love for the first time.

Sadly, she was right: he was indeed the only man she fell in love with and a great part of her missed him dearly. The other part just tried to ignore the fact that no one made her feel the way he did. But what was she thinking anyway? 14 years has passed and he got over her, for sure. If she wanted to stay in touch with him, she was going to have to accept him as her friend. Seeing him after all those years clearly messed with her heart and now she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She felt like a chaos had begun on her mind. It’s hard to think that for years you thought you were over someone and when you finally see that one person, everything you thought starts to crumble. With one encounter only! Imagine when she starts to be near him again?

Eva caught herself distracted looking at random flowers, and an old lady approached her asking if she needed help.

“Oh, I think I want. Do you have any Lily of the Valley?”

“Yes, follow me!” the old lady, who was incredibly small, led her to another section full with Lily of the Valley flowers. Eva chose one of them, the one she thought it was the most beautiful, and asked to put on a vase. When she put it on the table next to the bed, she expected that this would make the place a bit more happy and harmonious. Hospitals had such a tense atmosphere.

Since her father hadn’t come back from the exams, she decided to text Niko and ask him more details about the dinner.

_Do I have to look fancy on this dinner? - E._

A minute later, the answer.

_Oh, not at all. Actually, I tried to make reservations on my favorite restaurants in Berlim but they have no reservations._

She read the answer and thought that perhaps they could set up this for another time. Eva would never admit it out loud but she was actually anxious to see him again.

 _We could go another day. - E._ , she typed. _I don’t have fancy clothes here, anyway. and then sent it._

_Of course not. I’m going to make dinner for you at my house. So, no fancy clothes, just your ordinary self. - N._

She laughed at it. He must be thinking she still leads that rich and glamurous life she used to have. It was all gone and she turned to be a very ordinary citizen, eating at regular restaurants and going to parties with non-famous people. She typed her answer.

_You’re going to be surprised at how ordinary I am nowadays. - E._

_I doubt it. - N._

_Don’t. So, how are we going to do? How do I get to your house? - E._

_Are you staying at your father’s house? I can pick you up. - N._

_If it’s better for you, yeah, you can pick me up there. - E._

_Ok. Is 7 pm good for you? - N._

_Great. See you then. - E._

_See you. - N._

Eva read the messages again and cursed herself for being so nice and open to him. What the fuck was she doing? Was she out of her mind? Did she think she had any chance with him after all that happened? Eva felt her head hurting again and tried to be reasonable. But rationality wasn’t her best straight, so she texted her best friend, Audrey.

_Audrey, jesus fucking christ, you don’t know what happened. - E._

After a few minutes, her phone buzzed.

_Oh my God, what did you do?? - A._

_I didn’t do anything. yet. You know who came up to visit my father? Niko. They’re friends. - E._

_You gotta be kidding me. Niko Kovac? That goddamn HOT coach? - A._

_Yup, in person. - E._

_That same guy you cried over on the last Christmas? - A._

Good lord, Audrey had to remember that, hadn’t she? She was drunk and they started talking about things they regretted in life and Eva mentioned that if she could go back in time, she would never leave Niko. And then she proceeded to cry, of course, and told Audrey everything about her life. That was when she realized Audrey was the best friend she could have ever asked.

_You had to remember that. Yes, the same guy. The thing is, I thought that the only thing I felt was guilt because of what I did but turns out, I still have feelings for him. - E._

_I knew that before you knew. So what’s bothering you? He doesn’t want you? - A._

_No, I don’t know. I’m feeling confused. He invited me to dinner and I have so many things to tell him. - E._

_And you should tell. You’re getting the chance to explain yourself to him, so do it. - A._

_That’s the problem. I don’t know how to tell or if I should even think about him that way. I hurted him and now I’m here? Like, wtf. - E._

_God, Eva, you’re hyperventilating. Calm down. Just go to this dinner and talk to him. If it doesn’t work out, at least you tried. - A._

_I guess you’re right. - E._

_I’m always right. Boss is here. Take care, kiddo. xoxo - A._

By the time Eva finished exchanging messages with Audrey, her father was brought back to his room and he smiled at her.

“Ah, good morning daddy. You look great!” Eva observed and approached his bed.

“That is because I feel great, my dear.” he answered. The doctor entered the room and Eva shook his hand.

“Good morning, mrs. Strauss. Your father’s health has really improved but it’s still too risky for him to leave the hospital. So, mister, you’re gonna have to stay here a little longer.” the doctor said and her father nodded his head.

“I hate hospitals.” her father said.

“We all do, daddy, but it’s better if you stay and only leave when it’s safe.” Eva reproved him and he rolled his eyes. She laughed at the childish look he gave her. The doctor gave them a playful smile and excused himself saying he was going to check another a pacient. Eva shook his hands again and thanked him.

After the doctor left, Eva sat on the chair next to his bed and took his hands on her hands.

“Um, daddy? I won’t be able to stay here with you tonight.” she said to him.

“Are you going to meet Niko?” her father said, smiling.

Eva looked suspiciously to him and giggled at the face he gave her.

“Did you… did you make him ask me to have dinner with him?”

“Oh, no, that’s not what happened. He asked if it would be a good idea and I said that it was a marvelous idea.”

“Oh daddy…” she began.

“Cut the crap, Eva. You are losing too much weight for you own health.” he answered sharply. “And”, he softened “You could use a little friend company.”

Well, he was right. She could use a little company indeed. Eva smiled to her father and gave him a kiss on his forehead.

After the doctor left, Eva sat on the chair next to his bed and took his hands on her hands.

“You’re right, papa.” she admitted to him and he gave her a convinced smile, which made her love him even more. He knew exactly the things that were good for her and that was one of the many reasons why she was coming back to Germany.

Later that day, after lots of hugs and promises, to which her father answered that she should stop panicking about his health, Eva left the hospital. She arrived at her father’s place around 17 o’clock so she had at least 2 hours to get dressed. Not that she needed those 2 hours, she wasn’t going to wear something to impress him. No, actually she needed those hours to carefully choose anything that meant “I miss you but not interested” or something like that.  


Eva tried some clothes and set up with a jeans and a button-down blue shirt. _Yup, that was ok_ , she thought before getting into bath. During the minutes that she was in the bath, she tried not to think about anything and just let her mind go blank. Her body relaxed as the water hit her back; she was so exhausted that she could just sleep there.

Her phone rang on the bedroom, taking her away from her trance. She turned the shower off and looked alarmed at the clock. It was almost 19 pm! Eva picked up the phone and was met by a charming voice at the other end.

“Are you ready?” Niko asked.

“Yes, almost!” Eva lied. “You can pick me up already.”

“I’ll be there then.” she said and they hung up.

Eva ran back in the bathroom and began to dry herself. She put on her jeans, the shirt and a jacket, followed by a simple flat shoes. Honestly, she looked normal, much to her happiness. Her phone rang again.

“Ready? I’m waiting for you here outside.” said Niko as soon as she answered the phone.

“Yup, I’ll be right there!” she answered and hung up. One last look on the mirror, she was ready to go.

Eva opened the door and was met by the view of a Jaguar car, in which Niko was inside. She walked into his direction, stunned by the beauty of the car in front of her. Niko was smiling.

“You like it? I bought it this year.” he said and caressed the passenger’s seat. She entered the car and looked around.

“It’s very beautiful indeed. Wow.” she had almost forgotten how rich he was. “Very fancy.”

He smiled at her and started the engine of the car. It didn’t take them too long to arrive at his house, that was just a couple of streets away from where she was staying. During the ride they didn’t talk much, just exchanged a few words here and there, but the silence was comfortable. They gave each other furtive looks and smiled when their gazes met.

They arrived at this big greyish house with a very well treated green grass on the frontyard. He parked the car in front of the garage entrance and they entered the house. Different from color outside the house, inside everything was colorful and warm. She smiled at Niko.

“Your house is gorgeous. I never thought you would have such good taste.” Eva stated.

“Nah, it wasn’t me. I give the credit to Katarina, she knows a lot about this kind of stuff.”

Eva thought that this woman, Katarina, was his wife and froze at the idea of her joining the dinner.

“Is your wife joining us tonight?” she asked trying to sound as casual as possible.

“Oh no, I’m not married anymore. We are very good friends, though.” he answered and led Eva to the kitchen. “I need to finish our dinner, would you mind making me company? I have wine.”

“You won me by offering wine.” Eva smiled, relieved by the fact that he was single. He put on two glasses on the kitchen bench and served them both with red wine. Eva took a sip of it and hummed in pleasure, to which Niko responded with a smile.

“My favorite wine.” Niko said.

“It’s very good.” Eva took another sip from the wine and put her glass down.

“So Eva, how are you? What have you been doing for the last 14 years?” Niko asked as he resumed choping the vegetables.

“Well, um, working, I guess.”

“Don’t be boring, tell me the details. Are you still modeling?”

“No, no. I stopped modeling a little after I arrived at NYC.”

“Why?” Niko was very surprised and turned to look at her.

“I got rejected because I didn’t fit anymore in their standards. Go figure what that means, right?” she chuckled nervously. That subject made her quite unsettled because she remembers very clearly her mother’s reaction when Eva told her that she was out of the business.

“That’s ridiculous, you’re gorgeous. And what did you do?”

Eva shrugged. “I did what you always said I should do: something else. I got into Law School on the New York University, graduated, passed the Bar Exam and started working on Wall Street as a lawyer from a company.”

“Wow, that’s great. You must be very successful.” he stated, a little bit of proud on his voice.

“Yeah but I work too much. I didn’t get the time to spend the money I won over these years, that’s frustrating.”

“Frustrating indeed. So are you on vacation to take care of your father?”

“Nope.” Eva took a sip from the wine and prepared to say out loud a decision she made and that wasn’t making her as happy as she thought it would. “I quit. I’m moving back to Germany.”

“You what?!” Niko looked at her in shock.

“I quit the job.”

“I heard that but why?”

“Well, as I said, I worked my ass off and never got the chance to enjoy life. Plus, I, um… almost died because of a case. Shot twice, one on the shoulder and one on the ribs.” she pointed out to the parts of her body where she got shot. He looked shocked and she laughed. “Come on, I’m alive. But now I’m here and I’m about to take a job at a company, so all is well.”

“You could have died, Eva. I’m glad you’re okay… and that you’re here.” he returned to the vegetables and finished the salad he was making.

“How about you, Niko? How were the last 14 years for you?”

“I can say it was normal, at least for a football player. And I retired a few years ago, now I’m the head coach of Croatia’s national team.”

“The handsome coach, as I heard.” Niko rolled his eyes at the mention of the nickname and she laughed. “You don’t like it?”

“Not that I don’t like it, it just takes away the focus of what’s important: the match.” he answered. He seemed annoyed.

“My friend has a crush on you, she always texted me when you appeared on the TV during the World Cup.” she snorted at the memories of an over-excited friend sending her thousands of messages with “HE’S TOO HOT” and “YOU KISSED THAT GUY, FUCK YOU”. In her turn, she refused to even turn the TV on because she didn’t want to see him.

“At least it’s good to know I have this kind of effect on women.” he winked at her.

“Oh yeah, you became somehow a symbol.” Eva mocked playfully and they started laughing out loud.“But hey, aging did great things to you, ya know?”

“You think?” he looked at her.

“I’m sure. You look charming and… for the lack of a better word, hot. I can understand the success.” she knew they were starting to feel comfortable around each other and she couldn’t avoid saying that. He was so much more handsome than when he was younger. He had a more manly look nowadays, his hair slicked back, and his body looked as if it still had traces of the muscles he gained when he was a player. She wanted badly to flirt with him but her counscience was screaming for her to drop out that idea.

“Thank you, Eva. You’re being too nice with me.” he laughed and started to set things up for the dinner. . “Will you help me taking these to the table?” he asked and pointed to the bowl with the salad and the other one with rice. She took the two bowls and helped him setting up the table. Eva was disappointed that the conversation had turned cold again.

She looked at the dish he did: stewed chicken with potatoes, white rice and ceaser’s salad. It was very simple but it looked all very delicious. She was starving so she didn’t take too long to starting eating. It was indeed good and that surprised her.

“I didn’t know you could cook, Niko.” she said and took another spoonful of food.

“When you have a daughter, some things change, Eva” he joked and tasted his own food.

“You have a daughter? What’s her name?”

“Her name is Lara, she’s 13 years old.”

“Nice.” Eva didn’t have a lot to say, to be honest. She didn’t have kids AND she was hungry, so she decided not to say too much.

The rest of the dinner was another comfortable silence. Eva ate as if she hadn’t eat for a week, which was probably true. Sandwiches were not a good type of dinner. She drank more wine and felt tipsy at the end of the dinner. That was better, this way she could have some courage to address more delicate issues.

“Eva, I really missed your company.” Niko said and a small smile appeared on his lips. He was also a bit tipsy.

“I missed yours as well.” she said, her voice low. “Look Niko, I really have something to say. It has been bothering me for years and, I gotta tell. I’m really sorry, you know? For leaving and never giving any kind of decent explanation. I screwed up.”

Niko didn’t look at hear, instead decided to play with the fork on his plate. He was silent for some minutes and when Eva was about to break the silence, he spoke.

“I needed you. There were dark times in my career, I got injured and all I wanted was you supporting me.”

“I’m sorry, I…”

“You could have stayed, couldn’t you? You had a choice.”

She was silent now and didn’t know what to say. This was much more delicated than she thought.

“I didn’t have a choice, actually. My mother needed me.”

“And you moved to New York to live a good and fun life with her.”

“That wasn’t what happened.” her blood was starting to boil and she wanted to just leave.

“Really? Tell me how hard it was for you. Your family has always had enough money to support you, you were modeling in NY, your mother giving you full support. Tell me how fucking hard that was.” his voiced raised, his face was contorted in anger. She looked at him disbelieving what she was hearing.

“You know nothing about my life.” she pointed a finger at him, her voice rising as well.

“Make it clear to me, Eva. I’m not a magician to figure out what the hell goes on your mind!” he rose from the table and walked to the kitchen. Eva rose too and followed him.

“My mother was diagnosed with depression when she and my father split, so I had to take care of her. But you’re such a self-righteous asshole and you don’t care if anyone had problems as well, you only care about your own ass!” she yelled at him, her face hot with anger. He was livid and he approached her. They were face to face now.

“And you’re being pathetic and an idiot. I don’t even know why I invited you here, why I let my guard down for you, it’s just not worth it. You’re not worth it.” he said angrily and walked away from her.

“I don’t need to put up with any of your shit, okay? Fuck you.” she turned around and walked to the door. She slammed it and began walking towards the streets, so irritated that she forgot she got there with Niko and didn’t have a car to come back. Eva walked for a few minutes and arrived at a store, and there she called for a cab.

Instead going to her father’s house, she went to the hospital and prepared herself to find a good excuse for being there. She knocked the door and found her father reading a book, and a nurse changing his medicine. When Eva entered the room, the nurse came to greet her and give the good news.

“He’s getting better quickly, that’s a blessing!”

Eva smiled at her and thanked for their help and support. She was relieved that he would be going back to his house soon, and she was preparing something to him, maybe a trip to a beach so he could breathe some fresh air.

When she sat down on the chair next to his bed, her father gave her a suspicious look.

“What are you doing here?” he asked her.

“I’m here to stay with you.” she answered, as if it was obvious.

“You should be having dinner with Niko, why aren’t you there?”

“I had dinner with him. Then I decided to come back, is that a problem?”

“No problem, my dear.” he surrended but kept looking at her a little while before going back to his reading. Eva picked up her own book but failed miserably at keeping her attention on it. She was livid from their little discussion, her head aching and her feelings hurt. This was not what she wanted to happen that night, not that she expected too much. But she definitely didn’t want to fight.

So now she didn’t know what to do: her father adored Niko and she was so angry at him that she could punch him if he went there. But maybe on the next day she wouldn’t feel that angry, after all, she had her fair share of guilt on everything.


	4. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we begin, lemme just make an observation: Eva is a lawyer in USA as you guys know. However, according to my research, she’s allowed to be a lawyer in Germany, so her job at the company is related to American-German laws, since the company, in my mind, has an office both in USA and in Germany. She would be encharged to handle business related to their office in USA. Anyway, I don’t wanna get into details since this isn’t the most important thing but it’s cool to have a small background story. How she made it there and the whole especifics of it will be left to the reader to imagine.

Eva and Niko didn’t talk to each other for the next few days. She knew he kept visiting her father but he always managed to do it when she wasn’t there or when she was asleep. She wanted to call him or send a message to say she was sorry, that he indeed deserved to ask for explanations but she refrained the idea. He had hurt her as well and she felt injusticed. Things weren’t easy for her too despite the appearences, but proper explanations would come in time and she hoped that he would be open to listen. Well, only if they ever talked to each other again.

Her father noticed that they were avoiding meeting but was nice enough not to mention anything with her. He knew exactly what happened between them and Niko probably had told him as well, so he knew how difficult it was for them to see each other again and act as if nothing had happened, or as if there wasn’t anything to be mad about, after all those years.

Three days after the incident between Niko and Eva, her father was discharged from the hospital and that was when she saw Niko for the first time after the fight. Niko knocked the door to annouce his arrival and entered the room. They exchanged looks but didn’t say anything, and Niko went to talk to her father.

“Thank you for coming, Niko.” her father said and hugged Niko. “Eva is feeling a little sick today so any help will come in handy.”

“No problem, anything you want.” she heard Niko answering.

Eva’s stomach sank totally. The last thing she wanted right now was for him to feel pity towards her. She didn’t say anything and kept organizing her father’s stuff. Eva felt Niko’s fingers touching her arm and turned to meet his gaze. Much to her suprise, he didn’t seem angry with her.

“You need help with these?” he pointed out to the bag where she was collecting their belongs.

“Ah, no, it’s ok. I just need you to push the wheelchair, if that’s okay.” she muttered. Eva tried to sound as if she was still pissed but it was all gone, and she wanted nothing more than to reconciliate.

“It’s all fine.” he answered and went to help her father go to the wheelchair.

“Oh, come on! I’m fine, I can walk!” Eva heard her father complaining to Niko and chuckled at how stubborn he was. The doctor in charge of taking care of him entered the room holding the reports that he would sign so that they could go home.

“Mr. Strauss, ready to go?”

“More than ready!” her father answered and jumped out of the bed, much to Niko’s desperation.

“You can’t do that!” Niko panicked and held his arm.

“I’m fine, I said.”

“It’s not that, you were laid down for days, you can feel a bit dizzy if you stand up too quickly.” Niko said and helped her father sit on the chair.

“He’s right, mr. Strauss. Be more careful, you had a heart attack.” The doctor said and walked into Eva’s direction, and handed some papers to her.

“I need you to sign these.” he indicated the space where there was her name. She signed and handed back the papers. The doctor checked if everything was ok and smiled at her. “Everything is good to go.” he turned to her father. “Take care, mister. Don’t forget that good eating habits and exercises can prevent you from coming back to this bed.” He patted her father’s back and left the room.

Niko gave Eva a questioning look and she indicated the door. Despite the fact that her throat was sore and that she threw up on that morning, she was very happy. Maybe when she got home and just relaxed for a bit, she would feel better. Well, she felt better just by looking at the huge grin her father was wearing.

As for Eva and Niko, they weren’t exactly avoiding each other. The silence, again, was too comfortable to be broke. They comunicated with their eyes and expressions, only saying a word when it was necessary and it was on this circunstance that they arrived home. Her father decided to go to his room and take a bath, and that left Eva alone with Niko.

“Thank you, Niko.” she said and coughed. She must have gotten a nasty flu sleeping at the hospital. “Thank you for caring.”

“You don’t need to thank me.” he said and approached her. “I… I thought a lot about what happened on that night. I was too confused about you and I’m sorry for acting like an ass.”

She didn’t want to make it worse but yeah, he acted like a complete ass.

“I’m sorry too, I just ran away from your questions and you deserved to know the truth.” she said.

“I was thinking too much about the things that hurted me that I forgot about your feelings. I left my feelings get the most of me and I lost control. I’m really, really sorry. We started all of this with the wrong foot and I don’t want to lose the oportunity to be around you again. You see” and at that point, Niko stopped looking at her and concentrated on his hands. “I care for you. I wish I had buried everything we had in the past but I just couldn’t. So if I’m here it’s because I still have feelings for you. Since your father told me you were coming to visit him, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Eva felt something go through her body. It seemed like excitement mixed with a slight fear but she wasn’t sure. She had to be reasonable now so she fought the urge to kiss him already. Instead, she made the first step to fix this problem.

“I think you ought to know what happened, it’s only fair.” she said and Niko nodded his head. On that moment, she couldn’t feel anger anymore. “My mother was a very unstable woman, Niko. She placed on me all of her worst pressures. She was the one who forced me into the modeling career.” Eva coughed and felt that her throat was beginning to feel dry. “Eventually I started enjoying it but it wasn’t something I was very happy about. You know that pretty well.”

She sat at the couch and was followed by Niko, who took one of her hands on his.

“Anyway, when she and my father got divorced, she was going through a depression and I just couldn’t leave her alone. So I followed her to the USA and that could be classified as the worst decision I made in life.” she smiled sadly at him and he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

“As I said, I got rejected. The truth is that I gained weight and as I wasn’t exactly the shape of a typical model, they said I just should do something else. Man, you should have seen what my mom said. She almost kicked me out of the apartment.” she snorted, not a trace of humour on her laugh. “But I was somehow happy that happened because at that moment I knew I had the chance to do something I liked.”

“From that day on, I was emotionally abused by her for years. She said everyday I was useless and a disgrace to her, and that if she ever killed herself it would be _my_ fault.” Eva felt hot tears streaming down her face and tried to wipe them away but Niko was faster, his big hands collecting the tears from her cheeks.

“Can you imagine the nightmare? She didn’t even accept to pay for my college! She said it would be a waste of money, so my father paid for me. She refused to take the anti depressants, refused to accept help. On the day before I left home to live in the apartment I bought, she did something I was always afraid of. I arrived at home to pick up my stuff and found bottles of drugs on the floor of the whole apartment. She was laying down on the bathtub, dead. She had left a note saying that now I should live a good life since I was getting rid of her.”

At that point, Eva was crying a lot and didn’t know if she made any sense whatsoever. It was the first time she was telling this story to someone and it was harder than she thought. At the same time, she was starting to feel that a enormous weight was being removed from her shoulders.

“I don’t even need to explain what that did to me. It nearly drove me insane.” she sobbed and held his hands harder. “It took me almost a year to get rid of the memories and another year for me to stop blaming myself. That was when I started living my life again.”

She didn’t want to talk anymore and pulled her hands away from his, raising from the couch. She grabbed a glass of water, trying to calm herself, while Niko was still sat down, looking at her.

“That was…” he began, his voice hoarse. He looked bewildered.“I’m so sorry. If I knew… I would have never judged you so harshly.”

“So again, I’m very sorry for never coming back or never telling you anything. I didn’t want you to be part of that. Plus, I was ashamed. I still am.”

“Ashamed of what?” he asked and rose from the couch.

“Ashamed of my mother, of myself. I don’t want you to think I’m weak.”

He snorted but there weren’t traces of humour in his laugh.

“You’re being silly. I don’t think you’re weak, I just think you were an idiot for not trusting me enough to let me help you with your problems.” he noticed that she winced at the word “idiot”. “Sorry but that’s the truth.”

“What is done it’s done.” she said. “And I trust you right now.”

Niko smiled at her, taking her hand on his again. This time, he rose her hand to his mouth and gave it a sweet kiss. With his soft lips on her skin, her heartbeat increased exponentialy. He removed his lips from her hand.

“I propose an agreement between us.” he said.

“What kind of an agreement?”

“What if we tried to make it work again? A friendship or even something more, a relationship. We just can’t leave things the way they are. It’s not fair to us.”

Eva looked at him trying to find a trace of irony or anything but only met frankness. Well, they were definitely facing a situation where they had too many feelings and those feelings didn’t make any kind of sense.

“I think it would be… great. I just… I suppose it’s difficult to start from the point we were.” Eva said, happy by the idea of them being at least friends, perhaps one day a couple again.

“It’s impossible but we could take step by step? We don’t need to rush.”

This was something she had wanted for years, so it was very likely for her to accept. She thought that this was a great start for her, personally, since she was rebuilding her life.

“I think we could make it work.” Eva smiled at him. “The truth is that since I saw you last week, I couldn’t stop thinking about you too. So there it’s, we are screwed together.”

“I guess we are!” Niko giggled and hugged her. They held each other until she heard the door from her father’s bedroom upstairs opening. They separated and tried to begin a casual conversation around random stuff. Her father climbed down the stairs to meet them.

“Are you staying for dinner, Niko?” he asked.

“No, I’m sorry.” he looked at both of them apologetic. “I have business to take care of tomorrow and I need to go.”

—————

Eva followed Niko outside the house after thanking him again for helping her with her father. She led him to his car and he leaned on it.

“Have you ever visited Croatia, Eva?” he asked.

“No, never been there. Why?”

“In 3 days, on monday, I’ll have to travel to Croatia for training and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.” he suggested.

Eva looked disappointed at him and nodded her head.

“Unfortunately I can’t. On monday I’ll start a new job at a company and you know, I have to make an impression.” she answered;

“That’s a shame. Perhaps you could go on the weekend?”

Eva smiled at him, pleased by the invitation. She could go but something was telling her that this was taking things too fast. She didn’t want to upset him though.

“Okay, look. Let’s wait a bit until I get used to this new job and then I’ll plan a weekend with you in Croatia. I suppose you go there quite often.”

“I do. Ok then, we’ll talk about it on the future.” he said, seeming to understand that she was trying to dismiss him politely. They smiled at each other and Niko got into the car, while Eva began walking towards the house.

“Hey, Eva.” Niko called her, having lowered the car’s window.

“Yes?” she turned around to look at him.

“I didn’t get the chance to say it but I dreamed about you last night.”

“You did? And what was I doing in this dream?”

Niko chuckled and Eva gave him a questioning look, trying to understand what was so funny.

“Use your imagination.” he winked.

Eva’s expression made Niko chuckle even more. She was stunned by how quickly a normal conversation with Niko could turn into something more. Weren’t they supposed to go slowly with things?

“Cheeky.” she answered.

“Just telling the truth. Good night.” and he left, leaving her with a dumb smile on her face; well, the smile only appeared on her lips when she was sure he was already far and couldn’t see it.

And she slept thinking about Niko dreaming about her and how he must have felt to have her as an intrusor on his dream: did he like it? He seemed to. Most importantly, she wanted to know the exact content of the dream but that would cost her a bit of insistence.

———————-

Eva woke up on the next morning feeling like total shit. Her body was aching, her head spinning. She couldn’t even eat properly since her throat was sore, very very infected. She stayed in bed most of the morning while her father tried to take care of her. Poor man, he left the hospital the day before and now he had to take care of someone. Around noon, her phone rang and she saw Niko’s number on the screen.

“Hello.” she picked up, her voice almost fading

“You don’t sound good.” he stated.

“I’m terrible.”

“What are you feeling?”

“I think I’m with a nasty flu, my throat is shitty, my body is broken, my head is dead.”

“Oh my God” he laughed, “Such a drama queen.” She laughed too and coughed nastily. “I’ll come visit you later, ok?”

Eva hummed her answer and Niko giggled on the other side. They hung up and she spent the afternoon between watching TV and sleeping. She was deeply asleep when she felt a hand touching her forehead but didn’t open her eyes out of laziness. Then she felt her arm being raised and something cold touching her armpit. Eva opened her eyes and found Niko looking at her, his hand placing something under her armpit.

“What…” she looked at him confused.

“I think you have a fever, Eva.” he said serious. “Don’t lift your arm, you have a thermometer under it.”

She waited patiently for the minutes to pass and Niko removed the thermometer from her armpit.

“I knew it. I’ll go get a medicine for this flu, okay? Wait here.”

“Do I look like I’m going to get out of this bed?” she said sarcastically. Niko smirked.

A few minutes later, Eva was pushing down her throat two pills and a glass of water, and everything burned.

“Goddammit, this hurts.” she moaned and handed him the glass. “This is fantastic… I have to work on a new job in 2 days and I’m feeling miserable.”

Niko sat on edge of the bed and gave her hand a light squeeze. “You’ll get better, dear. I will take care of you.”

“Oh, really?” she challenged.

“Yup. Don’t forget I have a young daughter, I’m used to it.” he answered. He turned the TV on and searched the channels. “How about we watch a movie together?”

On that night, they watched a movie and two stupid reality shows, and had a lot of fun together. They laughed, joked, talked about preferences, a little bit of their profissional choices (they were watching a movie with investigations and Niko asked why she didn’t decide to be a prosecuter), and Niko tried to keep her hydrated so she could heal faster. He was such a good company that she felt comfortable enough to lay her head on his shoulders, and enjoy the last minutes of the tv show they were watching. And before she realized, she was asleep on his shoulder.

He took care of her on the nex day as well, and they spent another time watching TV and having fun. Niko even gave her a massage and Eva ended up falling asleep because God, he had amazing hands. Impressively, she felt better by the end of the day and even risked cooking for them.

“Are you kidding me, Eva? You’re still sick!” Niko protested but Eva ignored him. “Look, your father already ate and I can eat at home, there’s no reason for you to be up.” He kept talking while she walked to the kitchen and opened a bag of pasta.

“I’m gonna cook a simple thing, see?” she showed the pasta. “Plus, I need to get up a bit. My body is aching from sleeping the whole day.”

“Your body is aching because you’re sick.” he replied annoyed. She stuck out her tongue to him and started cooking the pasta. After a while, Eva was placing the plates on the table and serving them a nice portion of spaguetti.

“You know you’re the most stubborn person I know, right?” he said after eating a generous forkful of the spaguetti.

“As far as I know, you’re the most stubborn person in the _world_.” she answered with her mouth full. “I have to be up tomorrow morning so I might as well get used to do things while I’m sick.”

They ate in silence after she said that but Niko broke it after he finished his plate.

“I’m not that sturbborn anymore, you know.”

Eva snorted.

“I doubt it.” she replied.

Niko laughed at her answer and gave a light squeeze on her arm. “You look good like that, eating spaguetti, your hair high, wearing pajamas.” he said and smiled.

“You’ve gotta be making fun of me, right? I’m my worst self today.” Eva answered looking perplexed by what he said.

“Your worst self is already something beautiful. But hey, I have to go, okay? I’m going to travel to Croatia tomorrow and I’ve got to pack my stuff.”

She signed. Honestly, she didn’t want him to leave, especially to another country and for undeterminated time, as far as she knew.

“How long are you going to stay there?” Eva asked. She felt a bit concerned and anxious.

“A month or so. I have to convoke a team, then see their training, they have matches to play, so it will take a while.”

“I see.” She was disappointed that they were going to be so far away from each other but decided to hide it so she could protect her own feelings. He didn’t need to know that she cared that much about him in such a short time. Well, she never stopped caring, as matter of fact.

——————————————

Eva woke up feeling better on the next day and took a long shower to get ready for the day. She wore her suit, a light make up and high heels to make a good impression. Before leaving the house, she left a message to Niko.

_Thank you so much for spending the weekend with a sick woman. You’re an angel. - E._

When she arrived at the company, she was greeted by a very tall man wearing a suit, with a serious expression.

“Mrs. Eva Strauss, hello!” he said and shook her hand. “My name is Edmund, it’s very nice to meet you. We got a call from both of the attorney’s offices you worked for at USA and they all said you were one of their best lawyers. We really needed someone with a CV like yours.”

“Thank you very much. I’m also happy to be here, I’m moving back to Germany.” she smiled at the man and he smiled back. He led her through a huge office with lots of rooms until they arrived to a black door that led to another big office.

“Here it’s. Your office.” he presented.

Eva was stunned at how big her workplace was. She never had an office like that in USA and she would never have it even if she worked there for a thousand years. Edmund explained briefly how things worked on the company, what was her area of acting, to who she would report her work. From what she could gather, she had a pretty good position on the company already. She was left alone to accommodate her stuff on her office and noticed that she received a 2 new messages 30 minutes ago.

_I know you would’ve done the same for me. I’m leaving Germany in 10 minutes, we’ll talk later. Have a nice first day at your new job! Oh, and I talked to Robert today and he was outraged that you came back and didn’t call him. Please, do call him. - N._

She completely forgot about Robert. Goddamit, one of the greatests friends she ever had and she forgot to even ask about him. Eva felt her face hot from embarassement for being so distracted by other things that she couldn’t remember about Robbie. She saved his number on her phone and made a mental note to call him after she went home. Eva clicked on the second message and was pleased to know that it was also from Niko.

_The flight is late. I hate to wait at airports. I was thinking that we could use skype to talk to each other, what do you think? - N._

She cursed herself for not viewing these messages earlier but well, it was for the best. She would probably spend the day talking to him through messages and do nothing productive. Eva began typing her answer, a small grin on her face.

_I’ll call Robert tonight for sure. I’m embarassed for not asking about him. And I think skyping is a great idea, my user is “eva_strauss_1” so you can add me there. Have a safe flight, Niko. - E._

Eva put away her phone and looked at the pile of work that was already on her desk. It wasn’t too much like in USA, but it was a lot, and that was especially annoying since she wanted to spend the day like a teenager thinking about Niko. But since she was a grown up, she resigned herself to work a lot so the day could end quickly.


	5. Four

As soon as Eva arrived home from her first day of work, she called Robert. A male voice picked up, speaking in croatian.

“It’s Eva Strauss, Robert.” Eva said back in german. “Niko gave me your number.”

“Oh my God, Eva!” Robert answered. “You idiot, how could you spend 14 years and never give me a call?!”

There we go again. Niko wasn’t the only person she pissed off by leaving with no decent explanations. Robert was also someone she cared a lot and she felt so guilty for doing the same thing to him.

“That’s one hell of a difficult thing to explain.” she said.

“I know. Niko told me already. I’m really sorry, Eva. We judged you a bit too harsh, you know… when you left.” his voice didn’t sound as if he was angry. “Your father never told us anything, I guess he was trying to protect you.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t as if this was something he was proud of. But I hope you can forgive me, Robert. I missed you a lot.”

“I already forgave you, Eva. I would be a jerk if I thought you were guilty after all that happened to you. I’m glad you came back and that you and Niko are getting along. We missed you too… well, Niko more than I.” he chuckled on the phone. Eva felt very heartwarmed to know that the people that mattered to her understood what she went through. “So, how is it coming back?”

“At first I was a bit insecure because I got used to live in America but now I guess I made the right thing.” Eva shrugged. She wasn’t sure yet if this was the right decision but at least she felt happy.

“Where did you live there?”

“New York, Manhattan. The craziest place ever.”

“I’ve always wanted to visit NYC, it looks like a lot of fun.”

“I’ll take you there someday! So how about you, Robert, how is everything going?”

“I’m living in Croatia now! I took the role as assistant coach with Niko, I don’t know if he told you that.”

“No, he didn’t. That’s amazing! Congratulations, Robert! It’s cool that you two are working together.”

“Yeah, it’s! We didn’t win the World Cup, which is sad, but at least the team got there, we were so disbelieved. I mean, we are coaching the team less than a year!” he sounded so excited, just like a child who won a new toy. Well, she wasn’t surprised: both of the brothers loved their croatian heritage and she met them when they were already playing for Croatia’s national team.

“I’m proud of both of you. The team won two great coaches!”

“Thank you. You should visit Croatia one day, Eva.”

“I know! Niko invited me to go with him this time but I’m adjusting to a new job and I just can’t miss a day.”

“So I have an oportunity for you… My son’s birthday is in a month and we are going to make a party for him. It would be nice if you came. Anica said she wants you here.”

She couldn’t deny his request, especially because it was his kid’s birthday. She wouldn’t miss this even if she had to work until very late for days just to compensate.

“Tell Anica I won’t miss her son’s birthday. I can’t wait to see you two, it’s has been too long.”

“I know, you left us to live in America!” he gigled lightly.

“I did, who wants to be with you guys when you can be in the land of freedom eating McDonalds?!” she heard him giggle even harder.

“Okay but… I’m gonna enjoy having you here. Niko will love it too, you know that.”

“I know.” she answered.

“Hey, Anica is calling me here, I have to take the kids to bed. We’ll keep in touch, right?”

“We will! Good night, Robert. Send hugs to Anica.”

“I will. Bye, bye.”

They hung up and that conversation left Eva with a big grin through the whole night. As for Niko, Eva only talked to him through messages that night.

_I’m very tired today and I think I’ll sleep earlier. - N._

_Get some rest. We can talk on skype tomorrow. - E._

They ended up talking to each other on skype only a week later. Their schedules didn’t always match and Eva was still recovering from her flu, so either Niko would be too tired or she would sleep early.

She saw him adjusting the webcam, trying to focus on his face. When it was focused, she nearly lost all of her breath. He was unshaved and his hair was wet, so he defitinely just got out of bath. That was intentional, she knew. She didn’t know how good he looked when he had a beard, especially because it was starting to have strays of white hair. It wasn’t a full-grown beard, just a stubble. _Damn it,_ she thought, _So hot. I hate him._

“How are you today?” she heard him asking and snapped out of her thoughts. “How is everything going on your new job?”

“I’m…” she cleared her throat. “I’m fine but a bit tired. I’m enjoying it a lot, it’s less frenetic than the office I used to work in but still, it’s a lot of work. Something tells me that the guys from the office in US told them I’m a workaholic.”

“Less of a workaholic, I guess, otherwise you wouldn’t be here talking to me at… 7 p.m.”

“I can make exceptions.” she said winking.

“I’m glad I’m the exception, counselor.”

Eva giggled softly and complied.

“And how about you?” she asked.

“I’m great. Just got out of bath after a long day of training. Sometimes I regret retiring from professional football but then I remember I’m not young anymore.” he answered looking thoughtful.

 _I fucking know you just got out of bath, you bastard,_ Eva cursed to herself.

“You look younger than you think, Niko.” she stated. Niko gave her a small grin and shook his head.

“My body doesn’t handle it anymore. But anyway, you didn’t tell me you called Robert.”

“Yeah, I did, the same day you left to Croatia. We talked a bit but he had to hung up soon.”

“He told me. He also told me that he invited you for Marko’s bithday. Are you really coming?”

“I think that’s my debt to Robert.”

“And you know where are you going to stay?”

“I haven’t decided yet.” she shrugged. “I’ll look for hotels this week.”

“Are you serious? I’m not going to let you stay at a hotel when you can stay at my house. There are plenty of rooms here.”

Eva blushed lightly and stopped looking at him. She shouldn’t accept that invitation, especially because she knew that it would probably lead to other things she didn’t know if she was ready for. But when she looked at him again, he had a puppy face that melted her heart. She shooked her head in desbelief and he pouted.

“Okay, okay.” she resigned. He smiled brightly and threw his fist in the air, celebrating the victory. “But I can’t stay more than a weekend.” Eva warned.

“The birthday is on a friday afternoon. Can you make it?”

“Yes, I can. I’ll work until late on the week to compensate.”

“Great.”

They talked about neutral topics this time. If there was something that they both enjoyed a lot was chatting about anything and everything. They didn’t have the same ideas about everything but she liked to hear him talking, especially about football because he could get so passionate and she found it downright sexy. She liked to hear him laugh – the expression lines that laughing left on his face made him look even more handsome – and to see when he concentrated on giving her an answer, because he would look at nowhere and pout his lips. It was quite endearing. The best thing about it all it was that they weren’t rushing with anything and were busy only with getting to know each other again. It seemed more natural that way when you don’t force yourself to feel comfortable with the person again; You get comfortable naturally.

Almost everyday was a day to run upstairs to her bedroom to turn on her notebook and talk to him. The subjects went from politics, Croatia’s history – Eva became a huge History nerd through the years -, economy, cinema to their work, Zagreb, books and then, finally, relationships. She didn’t want to get near that topic soon but one day they would have to talk about that, sooner or later. It all started with one of his many questions about her life.

“After we broke up, did you date anyone else?” he asked after taking a bite of the pizza he was eating.

“Hm, yes. I actually didn’t date that much, just some affairs here and there. I had a steady boyfriend for a while, 4 years, but only him. I used to go out a lot and have one night stands, that’s easy when you live in a place like NY. You get to meet people from everywhere. You?” she had to ask, right? Even if she didn’t want to hear that he got married and was happy for years.

“You know I got married. More than a decade of marriage.” he answered.

“What intrigues me is why you two got divorced. If you’re friends, then there were no bitter feelings left.”

“It’s kinda of a complex and long story.”

“I’ve got the whole night.” she teased and he laughed.

“Hm…” he started and stopped to think for a while. “Let’s say that things got cold. Sexually speaking. We had a great chemistry, she supported me, we had a lot of fun together but on the last 3 years of our marriage we barely had sex. Not to mention that she didn’t like the idea of me coaching Red Bull Salzburg in Austria. It was a collection of things that made us decided that perhaps we should split before we got hurt. That’s the main reason why we are still friends: we never got to the point of fighting. There’s a part of me that still loves her deeply, there’s no point in denying that.”

Eva nodded and tried not to say “who could want to stop having sex with you?” but decided to shut up.

“I wouldn’t expect less. I mean, you two lived together for years. It’s not from day to night that you forget someone.”

“You and I both know a lot about that.” he pointed out seriously and she blushed. “Anyway, I still miss her but I know that we are over. She even has a new boyfriend.”

“And after that?”

“I got single, that’s what happened.”

“Come on, Niko.” she sighed exasperated. “I want more details.”

“You want to know if I had one night stands? More than I could count. I was single and I haven’t had a proper night of sex for years, so I naturally had sex with as many women I could handle.”

Eva laughed at his frankness. She knew that this would come, especially now that people thought he was a sex symbol, but what surprised her was that she didn’t feel jealous as she thought she would. It made her feel more relieved to know that he didn’t hide the obvious fact that he slept with a lot of women after he got divorced.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked, confused.

“It’s funny because that doesn’t sound like you yet, at the same time, I can imagine you all womanizer.”

“Not womanizer, just enjoying life.”

“Oh, I see.” Eva laughed at him.

Niko stayed for a while looking at her and she felt a bit uncomfortable with his long, penetrating gaze. Eva knew he was about to ask something even more intimate and tried to prepare herself for the worst.

“Eva.” he said quietly.

“Yes?” she answered trying to keep her voice steady.

“Do you still remember that night when we met?” he cleared his throat and kept looking directly into her eyes.

“Yes, of course.”

“That was what I dreamt that night I told you about. I remember all too well.”

Eva felt her breath getting heavier and heavier as she began recalling the events of that night, the way he kissed her in the car, pressing her body against his and giving her an amazing orgasm. How could someone forget that? She felt a heat rising through her whole body.

“I… We were very crazy on that day.” she breathed out.

“Oh yes.” he answered, closing his eyes. “But that was a good crazyness. Would you do it again?”

Eva almost choked in surprise. Niko Kovac was an interesting person: he could be dead serious and then, suddenly, just give you the biggest smile ever and start hitting on you. At first, when they started talking through skype, he was always polite and for a moment she began feeling that perhaps he wasn’t that interested on her again. Normal. But after of month of a lot of chatting, he started teasing her, making double entendre jokes. So she thought about playing along.

“Is that an invitation?” Eva teased. Niko looked serious for a moment and then grinned.

“Perhaps. It’s up to your interpretation.”

 _Fuck off, Niko._ She thought. _He’s always going to throw the bait on me. He wants ME to say what I want._

But Eva wasn’t going to miss this one. She would always change subject and he would go along, definitely enjoying the idea that he was messing with her mind, but maybe a bit disappointed that she didn’t fall for his bait.

“I’ll tell you my interpretation when I arrive in Croatia this week.” Eva answered and gave him a cheeky grin.

Niko looked stunned for a moment but drew himself together, and prepared to give her an answer. Eva was delighted to draw such a reaction from him.

“Should I consider you dangerous for saying that? I mean, you’re going to stay at my house!” he said trying to suppress a smile.

“Oh, I’m harmless, trust me.”

“I remember how ‘harmless’ you were.” he answered and winked.

When they said their goodbyes, Eva went straight to take a cold shower. Fuck that man, he got what he wanted: left her aching for him. She let the water run down on her hair, on her back. Her hands found her breasts and she could almost feel his tongue touching her neck, and his hands running through her body. Eva let a strangled moan leave her mouth and touched herself, imagining it was his hands instead of hers, that his body was pressing against her back and that he was whispering her name.

Eva laid down on her bed an hour later and found out that she had one message from Niko on her phone’s inbox.

_Tell me you are thinking about me. - N._

She didn’t want to give him this kind of pleasure but before she could think more about it, she had already typed her answer.

_I had to take a shower because of you. - E._

Eva held the phone close to her heart that was racing. She felt excited and _so_ scared to be doing this.

_Me too. This is going to sound ridiculous but I need you here. - N._

_What are we doing? - E._ , she typed. The more she waited for his message, the faster her heart pounded on her chest. It was that kind of excitement you get when the boy you like says he likes you too. Her situation was more or less like that. Except she wasn’t in school again and this wasn’t a regular guy.

_I don’t know. I stopped being rational by now. - N._

_I actually don’t want to think about anything. I just want you here. - N._

She bit her lips and chuckled with his desperation. She wanted to see Niko right now but to be honest, she didn’t know what would happen. Yes, they were definitely going to sleep together. And after that? Were they going to have something serious or just pretend nothing happened? The “after” of this was worrying her, especially because _he_ didn’t want to think about anything. Those were emotions speaking and she didn’t want to be fooled by that. No, her feelings were already too fragile for that. She tried to be reasonable on her answer.

_I’m trying to be rational but I can’t. We need to think of this. - E._

_You’re right. - N._

Eva didn’t answer back and Niko didn’t send any other messages, so they left the subject hanging in the air, at least for the night.

—————————-

The week of her trip to Croatia started with a desk full of work and a bunch of appointments to attend. Eva had left a notice on her job that she would be off on friday and that she would stay until late on thursday, but nothing prepared her to stay from monday to thursday working until late so she could handle everything. As a result, she barely talked to Niko, only sent him a few messages explaining how busy she was that week.

On thursday, she left the office around 8 p.m. and imediately called Niko to arrange everything for her trip.

“I’m taking the flight of 10 a.m, I guess I’ll be there around noon, right?” she said on the phone trying to find a cab.

“That sounds about right.” he answered. “I’ll pick up at the airport, ok?”

“Please Niko, you shouldn’t bother…” she began but he cut her off.

“Could you please, for once, accept my help without resistence? It’s getting extremely annoying.” he protested.

“Sorry, sorry.” she said laughing and entered a cab. Eva gave her address to the taxi driver and returned to her phone. “So it’s settled: you’re going to pick me at the airport. Don’t be late.”

“I’m never late, Eva Strauss.” he answered back and she hummed in agreement.

When she got back to her house, Eva busied herself with her suitcase. She didn’t know exactly what to wear, so she threw inside the suitcase three jackets, a coat, scarfs, her boot, three pair of jeans, underwears, bras and a dress that she would probably use for the birthday. Well, that would do… for the weekend at least. Eva carried the suitcase downstairs and found her father on the kitchen.

“Hey.” he called and kissed her forehead. “Is everything in order?”

“Yes, it’s.” she placed the suitcase next to the door and hugged her father. “I’m anxious to visit Croatia.”

“It’s a gorgeous country, my dear. You’ll like it.”

Eva only nodded her head in response and they stayed in silence for a while, until her father broke their embrance.

“They are nice boys, aren’t they?” he asked.

“Niko and Robert? Yes, they are amazing.” Eva answered.

“It’s a pity you and Niko didn’t get married.”

Eva scratched the tip of her nose in annoyance and tried to ignore the commentary. It was a pity indeed.

“I’m sorry for saying that. I know life hasn’t been fair to you.” her father said and kissed her forehead again. “But if there’s something I can say as an advice to you is: don’t run away from happiness, Eva. That man feels something for you that I can’t explain.”

Eva pulled away from him and looked straight into his eyes. She had never seen him so serious in her life.

“I know, daddy. I’m just… afraid. I’m afraid of hurting him again, of hurting myself.” she revealed. Her father didn’t answer but hugged her closer, trying to give some sort of support and love. The truth behind that hug was that no matter what happened, how badly she got hurt, he would always be there to comfort her.

—————————-

She was so anxious that she barely slept that night, and when it was around 5 a.m., she got up to take a shower. Now more than never, the memories from her time with Niko were starting to completely fill her mind. Before she met him again, she would remember him from time to time, but nowadays, it was difficult to find a moment when she wasn’t thinking about something funny he said or how charming he looked when a stray of hair fell on his face, or even how good his kisses where. Eva almost wished to hell that he was feeling the same way.

The trip from Berlim to Croatia was a very calm one and she tried to busy herself during the whole time, switching between taking a nap and reading a book. Eva was a bit claustrophobic, so the whole idea of being in an airplane made her feel tensed up – her trip from NY to Germany was almost hell on earth. She felt a sense of relieve when the fresh air hit her face as soon as she got out of the plane. She picked up her bag from the baggage claim and went to the arrival area of the airport.

She found Niko leaned against a wall, wearing a white dress shirt, blue jeans and ray ban glasses. If he was trying not to drive attention to him, she thought that maybe it wasn’t working. Eva waved at him and he waved back. When she finally reach him, he took off his glasses and smiled from ear to ear.

 _Holy fuck._ she thought.

“Hello, Eva.” he said approaching her and kissed her cheek.

“Hello.” she answered back, her voice stuck in her throat.


	6. Five

“How was the trip?” Niko asked as they were walking to the parking lot outside the airport.

“It was nice considering the circumstances.” Eva answered.

“What circumstances?” he asked curious.

“I’m not a fan of airplaines.” Eva shivered just by remembering being inside of that plane again.

“The more I know about you…” Niko chuckled and led her to a nice silver car that was parked next to the exit of the parking lot. He put her suitcase in the trunk of the car and they entered the car. He drove her to his rather gracious house, located next to the center of Zagreb. Eva knew that if Katarina wasn’t a good person, at least she had a really damn good taste for houses, because she knew for sure Katarina chose them all. But well, she didn’t know her _yet_. This house was larger and fancier than the one in Germany. It really looked like a footballer’s house.

During the trip to his house, they only talked about random topics and were kinda avoiding talking about the last time they talked on skype and the sexual tension that was arising between them. Of couse it was difficult not to tease him back when he placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her inside the house. She smiled at him and he winked.

“Let me take your bags to the guest’s room.” he said and disappeared on a corridor that led to a huge backyard.

Eva walked through the living room and stopped by the book shelve. She was impressed to see so much comic books, she never thought Niko was the type of guy who liked super heroes.

“Robert called me this morning and said the party was gonna start around 2 or 3 pm, so I guess you have a little bit of time to get dressed.” Niko said coming back to the living room.

“Are these comic books yours?” she asked, turning around.

“Ah, no. These are from Lara, she’s a fan of super heroes. Unusual for a girl, right?”

“Not that much, I’m a fan too. And where’s Lara?” Eva was dying to ask since she never saw her with Niko.

“She’s in Russia. She’s on vacation so Katarina wanted to take her there.” he answered. “But she’ll be back soon and I want you to meet her.”

“And why is that?” Eva asked.

“Because I want to.”

“Yeah, and why do you want to?”

“Don’t be cynical, Eva. It doesn’t fit you.” Eva rolled her eyes to his answer. No, she didn’t know why, he would have to be more especific. He seemed to anticipate that she was going to argue, because he immediately cut her off. “We can talk about that later. Are you hungry?”

Eva sighed exasperated.

“No, I had a good breakfast before leaving Germany. I just want to take a quick nap, I barely slept tonight and this week was so tough.” she said and rubbed her neck. If she didn’t sleep a bit now, she would probably didn’t make to the party.

“Sure.” Niko answered and indicated her room. She walked down the corridor and entered on the second door on her left, right in front of Niko’s room.

Eva closed the door and breathed heavily. As soon as she laid on bed, she totally crashed. She was so tired that she didn’t even have the time to take off her clothes or even dream. She woke up abruptly with a soft knock on the door.

“Yes?” Eva asked, her voice gruff.

“You’ve been sleeping for 2 hours, I’m afraid you’ll have to wake up and get dressed.” Niko answered from the other side of the door.

“Ok.”

She almost rolled off the bed into the floor, trying to get up. She scratched her eyes with the palm of her hands and, on the way to the bathroom, she grabbed her bag of makeup. She did a light makeup, enough to make her look composed and classy. She chose a light blue dress to wear, a coat, black stockings and black scarpin heels. When Eva was done, she looked at her clock and was astonished to see that it was almost 3 pm, so she grabbed Marko’s present on her suitcase and left the room.

Eva found Niko on the couch, a notebook on his lap. He looked so handsome wearing a sweater on top of his white shirt, his hair slicked to his left side as always, showing the white strands of hair on the right side. He looked so concentrated on his notebook that he didn’t notice she was standing on the corridor, admiring the view.

“Hello.” she said and Niko jumped on his seat.

“Jesus Christ, Eva!” she said, obviously scared with her sudden appearance. “Why… wow.” he said but then, he looked at her, his sentence cut midway. “You look beautiful.” he smiled when he finished the sentence, making sure to highlight the word “beautiful”.

“Thanks. You look handsome too.” she felt her cheeks burning. “Shall we go?” she tried to shake off her embarassment. Was that normal? She didn’t remember being this disconcerted with a compliment in years.

“Yes!” Niko closed his notebook and got up from the sofa, walking to the door and opening it to her. She passed by him and could smell his perfume, a striking fragrance that perfectly matched him. He smelled so damn good it should be prohibited. That made her smile from the house to the party.

They arrived at Robert’s house in minutes and it was already full of people and children screaming and running. Niko and Eva entered the house searching for Robert but only found children everywhere. They reached the backyard full of tables and food.

“Niko, Eva!” they heard someone screaming and turned around to see Robert running towards their direction. Robert hugged Niko and then Eva, a tight hug.

“Such a long time! I missed you very much.” Rob said while still hugging her, almost suffocating her. She didn’t care though and hugged him back enthusiastically.

“Hmm, it’s so good to see you, Robbie!” Eva exclamed. They separated and Robert kept holding her by the arms.

“You look stunning, Eva. You didn’t age a day! I’m happy you came, it means a lot to me.”

“Come on, Robert, don’t say that. I’m happy you invited me.” Eva said, feeling slightly blushed. “Where’s your son?” she asked and pointed at the gift she was holding.

Robert took them to where there was a child’s slide and called a boy who was about to slide down. The boy ran into their direction and hugged Niko by the waist.

“Uncle Niko!” he said, excited. The boy was jumping while hugging Niko.

“Hello, Marko. Nice party, huh?!” Niko messed up his hair playfully. “I want you to meet auntie Eva.” and Niko pointed at her.

“Hey Marko, how you doing?” she said in german and extended her hand for him to shake. Marko, as a big boy, extended his hand as well and shook her hand.

“Nice to meet you!” he answered, also in german. He was so young and already spoke two languages! Eva looked impressed at Robert and turned her attention to him again.

“I’ve got a present for you.” Eva gave him the package and watched him destroy completely the paper. His eyes of surprise and happiness when he looked at his present made her heart warmed.

“DADDY, OH MY GOD, IT’S THE AVENGERS! ALL OF THEM!” he screamed excited while he took Capitain America out of the box. Eva could see he could barely handle his happiness, he was taking all of the super heroes from the box and trying to carry them in his hands.

“That’s great, Marko! And what do we say?” Robert said.

“Thank you so much, auntie Eva!”

Marko ran to show the other kids the gift he got, leaving Eva with a silly smile on her face. Well, she wasn’t good with kids but at least she tried to give him something cool for a boy celebrating his 8th birthday.

Anica went to greet them as well, holding a baby on her arms. Eva and Anica hugged each other and Eva made a mental note that this was one woman who would never get ugly on her life. Never.

They chatted for a while but soon other kids arrived with their parents, so Anica and Robert left their company to greet the parents and Niko and Eva were alone again. He touched her arm lightly and looked into her eyes.

“You really look great today.” he said. “I never thought you would look better at 35 years old than when you were 21.”

Eva laughed sarcastically.

“Oh yeah, right.”

“You don’t believe me, I’m offended.” Niko turned his face to the other way, pretending he didn’t want to look at her. She grabbed his arm and pushed him against her, forcing him to look at her. He seemed delighted by the contact.

“I believe you, you silly.” Eva winked and broke physical contact before anyone started suspecting there was something going on between them. “I’m going to have a walk around.”

Eva walked away and only looked back for a second, finding Niko smiling and shaking his head. She stopped by a table that was full of children’s candies and took a bite of one of them, sighing at the feeling of sweet in her mouth. That was the best part of a children’s party: the insane amount of sugar. A man approached the table and also grabbed a candy, eating it in one bite. He spoke something to her but she couldn’t understand him.

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak croatian.” she said apologetically.

“Oh, sorry. I said that these candies are wonderful.” the man answered, now speaking in english. She was quite impressed by how handsome he was.

“They really are!” Eva said. “It has been a while since I’ve eaten candies.”

“Me too… By the way,” he extended his hand to her. “I’m Vedran Ćorluka, nice to meet you.”

Eva shook his hand, smiling. “Eva Strauss, nice to meet you.”

“I’ve never seen you around before…” he said.

“Well, that’s because I live in another country. But I’m friend of Robert and Niko.”

“I see. Is your boyfriend around?”

Eva laughed and understood what was going on. She didn’t know who he was but her self-esteem went to level 100 because, boy, he was handsome as fuck.

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” Eva said. That was… true, although she and Niko were flirting with each other. They didn’t have something serious yet, right?

“Are you serious? A woman so gorgeous like you alone?” Vedran made a shocked face.

“I’m not ‘alone'”, she answered sheepishly. “I’m just not dating.”

“I get it. It doesn’t matter, I think you’re too beautiful to be single.”

“Thank you very much.” she wanted to change the subject, so she tried asking something else. “Are you friends of Rob?”

“Yes, yes. I actually play for Croatia, I’m a footballer.”

“That’s great! I’m sorry for not recognizing you, I know nothing of football.” she laughed nervously.

“No problem, it’s actually good to meet a woman who doesn’t know me, at least once.” he gave her a bright smile and took a bite of another candy. “How about you?”

“I’m a lawyer in Germany.”

“You’re german?! Nice, I love Germany. And how did you meet Robert?”

“When he was still living in Germany, I met him and Anica. He was one of my best friends.”

“Really? And he’s not your best friend anymore?”

“I’ve been away for years so hm, we kinda lost contact, but we are still good friends.”

When he was about to say something, another guy called him from a far, holding the hand of a small boy and followed by a woman who probably was his wife. They waved at each other and Vedran looked back at her.

“I’m sorry, it’s my friend Luka, I have to talk to him” he took a paper and a pen from his pocket and wrote a number on it. “If you want to chat sometime, call me, ok?”

Vedran winked at her and left her company. Eva looked stunned at the paper and shook her head in disbelief: are you serious? Did this extremely handsome guy just flirted with her? She threw the paper in one of the pockets of her coat and went to find something to drink. She settled down for some orange juice and walked around a bit, seeing Vedran with that friend, Luka, and other guys, who she supposed were all players from Croatia. She didn’t remember being at a children’s party so full of handsome men. He waved at her and she waved back politely.

She found Niko and Robert sitting at a table, chatting animated. She approached them and sat next to Niko.

“I guess you’ve already met Vedran.” Robert joked.

“Aaah, yes. And he…” she started but was cut off by Niko.

“Flirted with you.” he completed for her. Eva looked at Niko and found a bit of jealousy in his face.

“He’s always like that, he can’t see a beautiful woman alone.” Robert said, trying to shake off the tension between her and Niko. Niko, in his turn, took a forkful of pie and didn’t look at her for a while.

Robert turned his attention to his daughter, who was trying to eat her crayons, and Eva took that opportunity to talk to Niko. She touched his knee and Niko looked right into her eyes.

“How did you guys know he flirted with me?” she asked.

“Because he came to us asking why the fuck we don’t introduce our friends to him.” Niko said and turned his gaze to the pie in front of him. He took another bite.

“I just… chatted with him. He was the one who gave me his phone number.”

“I’m not saying anything, Eva.” Niko said, now looking at her. “You’re… single, and there’s nothing wrong with what happened.” Eva was taken aback. Fortunatelly, Anica called her from inside the house, asking if she could help her give ice cream to the kids. Apparently, they were over excited and were giving her a hard time.

Eva gave one last look at Niko and sighed in exasperation before leaving the table. When she arrived at the house, the children were almost jumping on each other to get the ice cream. She asked for them to make a line otherwise she would eat everything and they would have nothing to eat. The kids quickly made a line and then Anica could give them the ice cream.

Robert and Niko arrived at that moment, asking for their ice creams as well, pretending they were children, fighting to be the first. Eva laughed and put some chocolate ice cream on a bowl, then stood in front of Niko.

“This is for you, to stop being bitter with me.”

He shook his head.

“I’m not bitter with you. Not anymore.”

“See, I knew something was off.” Eva took a spoonful of chocolate ice cream and ate it in front of him, making sure to lick her lips slowly. Niko smirked looking at her lips and it was his turn to taste the ice cream, and Eva made sure to give it in his mouth. He closed his eyes when he tasted the ice cream and hummed in pleasure, to which she hummed back.

“Good?” Eva asked, obsessed by the way he was licking his lips.

“Excelent.” Niko gave a kiss on her cheek, one of his hands holding her hips. With his cold lips touching her skin, she felt nothing but hotness going through her body. Robert cleared his throat and Eva turned to see that Anica and Rob were looking at them expectantly.

They smiled shyly at them and to their lucky, Marko entered the house running with Captain America toy on his hand and pretending he was a super hero. He came up to Eva excited and showed his toy to her.

“Can I be like him one day?” Marko asked her.

“What? The most perfect super hero ever?! Of course you can!”

“But daddy said super heroes don’t actually exist.” Marko said, lowering his head. Eva looked sharply at Robert and then back to Marko.

“Look, you can’t fly and you certainly don’t have super powers but you still can be someone’s hero. You just have to be a good boy, Marko. That’s why Captain America is so awesome! He’s the nicest guy ever.” Eva said and winked at him. Marko looked stunned at her and then at his father.

“Is that true, daddy?” he asked.

“Yup, Marko. It’s important to be a good boy.” Rob smiled and ruffled his son’s hair. The boy ran outside to find his friends and Eva turned around to see Niko with a half smile.

“You’re good with kids…” Niko stated. She nodded her head.

“Not that much. I can socialize.” she answered.

“Nonsense, Eva.” said Robert touching her shoulder. “You never thought about kids?”

“I kinda thought about it for a while, but I just worked too much. I didn’t even have the time to take of myself, imagine taking care of a baby!” she answered, snorting.

“But now you don’t work that much, do you?” Anica asked.

“Well, no.” Eva admitted.

“So now you can think about kids someday…”.

Eva finally realized what road this conversation was going. She felt goosegumps just by imagining a scenario where she was with Niko and they had a baby together. _Ah Eva, stop it!_ she thought to herself. Eva laughed lightly and tried to politely brush off the topic.

“Of course I can. Let matters take their course, right?” Eva smiled and Niko touched her arm, as in to show her he’s supporting her. Anica smiled to her as well.

“Let’s wait then.” Anica said.

The rest of the party consisted on Eva talking to Rob and Anica, getting to meet Niko’s friends and sometimes playing with the kids. The language was a bit of a barrier and she promised herself she would start learning Croatian, to which Niko happily offered himself to teach her. It was such a nice atmosphere and she was having so much fun that she barely noticed when it started to get dark. She noticed Vedran coming on her away, a smile on his face.

“Hello again. I was wondering if you needed a ride to your hotel.” he said.

“Ah.” Eva smiled. “Thank you but Niko is going to do that already.”

“Ah, I see…” he answered.

“Sorry.” Eva complemented.

“No problem. I’ll be waiting for the day you get to call me…” he started and then stopped, looking above her head. “Hey coach!” he said playfully.

“How you doing, Vedran?” Niko said and friendly patted his shoulder.

“Great! I should go, good night Niko. And good night, Eva.” and after saying that, Vedran winked at her, leaving her and Niko alone.

“We should go too.” she heard Niko saying, coldly.

“Ok.” she whispered.

They said their goodbyes and got into Niko’s car. The drive to his house was rather uncomfortable because he didn’t even look at her. His jaw was clenched the whole time and she feared he might break his teeth. She choose not to say anything until they got into the house, and her heart pounded so heavily in her chest.

When they arrived at Niko’s house, she was already pissed off with the situation and decided to actually end this bullshit.

“Niko.” Eva said and touched his arm. He stopped dead in his tracks. “Are you angry with me?”

A minute passed and Niko didn’t answer her. His back was turned to her so she couldn’t see his face and try to understand what was happening. And then again, she tried to ask.

“Niko? Please.” and suddently he turned towards her.

“I’m not angry with you.” he said dryly.

“Then why are you acting like that?”

“Because I’m angry with the whole situation!” Niko said angrily.

“Is this all about Vedran hiting on me?” she asked, incredulous this was happening.

“Fuck Eva, yes. It’s part of it.”

“I don’t get it.” Eva said simply.

Niko huffed and shook his head, his hands frenetically fixing his hair. And by the way he let his arms fall, she knew he had enough of whatever was bothering him.

“Look, I’m angry because I’m jealous of you. I’m angry because I don’t want to be jealous! You…” he licked his lips nervously. “You came back after 14 years away and you’re making my heart a complete mess! I fell in love with you again! That’s ridiculous, we saw each other again barely a month ago and I can’t sleep without thinking about you. And now I can’t even look someone else having some kind of interest on you, especially someone like Vedran, who would easily have a chance with you!”

Eva was shocked for a moment and had to lean herself on the wall to find support. And then she snorted at his remark, as if she was that interested on Vedran. Ok, he was a hell of a handsome guy and it would be hypocrisy of her to say she didn’t feel attracted but the truth was that she was crazy about Niko. She wanted nothing more than to be with him again.

“You say that as if I had any kind of interest on Vedran…” she said.

“Come on, Eva. He’s quite popular among women.”

“Well, I thought I had made quite clear I was more interested on the head coach of Croatia than on the players.” and Eva stood mere inches of his face. She thought she was going to be the one to make the last step forward but Niko was faster and grabbed her waist tightly, his lips finding hers.

Eva grabbed his neck with one hand and his shoulder with the other, her body threatening to fail sustaining itself. She felt her back hit the wall, his tongue trying to enter her mouth to explore. His hands left her waist and were now on her ass, pressing her body against his, obliging her to feel how hard he was.

The feeling of his teeth on her lip, biting it lightly, made her ache for him even more and she released a moan. His eyes opened with the sound and he stopped kissing her.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Niko asked trying to catch his breath.

“What? Of course yes.” Eva answered and pulled him for another kiss. The taste of his mouth was just… perfect. She could kiss him the whole night and never get tired of it. His lips were soft and warm, and she wondered how the hell she survived 14 years without kissing him, without feelings his strong yet so gentle hands touching her body. Niko pulled his lips away from her mouth again and she huffed. She busied herself with his delicious neck while he tried to focus again.

“There’s no going back, Eva. This is…” he was saying but was cut off by Eva.

“I’m in love with you too, Niko. Trust me, I want this and I know what it means.”

Niko pressed her against the wall again and attacked her neck, gaining a loud moan from her. One of his hands started pulling up her dress and she tried to wrap one of her legs around his waist but she was too damn horny to even have enough straight to do something like that. He seemed to noticed what she was doing because the next thing she noticed, he was pushing her into the kitchen and onto the table. He lifted her so she was sitting on the table, her knees on the level of his waist and bulge.

“Now, that’s better.” he said and touched her tighs, softly and caring. His hands went from her tighs to her panties, his finger barely touching her center but close enough to make her stir. He removed her stockings carefully not to damage it and she was shivered by the breeze that hit her hot skin. She was delighted to feel his touch on her bare legs, the contrast of his manly hands on her soft skin, squeezing, caressing. Eva looked attentively at his hands working and couldn’t refrain herself from grabbing them and slowly guiding them up.

Niko quickly took off her panties and threw it on the floor. His index finger found her clit and Eva jumped with the touch, her legs closing. Niko opened them again, but this time he lowered his head and he licked her pussy.

“Oh, fuck.” Eva hissed and grabbed his hair, laying down on the table. Niko hummed in pleasure.

Niko’s tongue, demanding and hot, was eveywhere. He didn’t miss a single part of her pussy, going up on her legs sometimes, just to add more pleasure. He licked her once, twice, and didn’t stop until her hips where moving on the same rhythm as his tongue, her voice hoarse begging for him to make her orgasm already.

But he had other plans. Instead, Niko inserted two fingers inside of her already slicky vagina and sucked lightly her clit. Eva contorted herself on the table and burried his face even deeper in her center. He seemed to enjoy it even more, his touch on her clit so soft that was torturing her.

Eva felt something hot starting to build on her stomach and spreading through her whole body. Her grip on his hair tightened and Niko fastened his moves, now inserting three fingers, much to Eva’s happiness. Niko gave a few more powerful thrusts with his fingers and Eva cluntched her knees, her orgasm taking full control of her body.

It took a while for her body to stop spasming, to stop the wave of pleasure. While she was trying to control herself, Niko gave feather-like kisses all over her tighs. Eva raised her body on her elbows and watched him caressing her. They made eye contact and he smiled, intoxicated.

“Wow, I missed you.” he whispered and capturated her mouth, their tongues playing a game of dominance. Eva started to get up slowly, and her hands found his sweater and took it off, throwing it away on the floor. She then started unbuttoning his shirt while she ravished his mouth, and after she removed his shirt, she went for his belt and trousers.

When she removed his trousers and left Niko on his boxers, he went for her dress and bra, leaving her completely naked. His fingers caressed one of her niples, the fire coming back to her pussy and leaving her once again aching for him. She didn’t waist any more time and took off his boxers.

Oh well, the truth about Niko was that he was still had an amazing body. He was 42 years old and still looked like he was in his 30s. His chest and arms were still filled out, like she was looking at the same Niko she slept with in her 20s, but with a huge difference: he looked mature now. Definitely age did amazing things to this man. She roamed her hands through his chest, his abs, stopping near his manhood. God, his legs. Those damn legs. She appreciated the vision in front of her, still a footballer’s body, so strong and… fuck, Eva was bitting her lips so hard it was going to cut.

Of course, the vision of his cock, steel hard and pulsing, only added beauty to his already perfect body. She touched the head of his penis, and Niko released a strangled groan, his hands reaching for thighs, squeezing them. She then grabbed it and stroked it once, twice, watching it twiching on her hand. Niko’s breathing was still calm but she wanted him to loose control.

Eva jumped off the table and kneeled in front of him. The look on his face when he saw her on her knees grabbing his cock made her smile before she licked the head.

“Eva.” he moaned and placed his hand on her hair. He grabbed it lightly. She licked one more time before she engulfed the whole length of his shaft, her tongue playing with the head the whole time she was putting him in her mouth. She then started pulling out slowly, taking a time to play with the head again, and again. The sound of his deep voice groaning and saying nonsenses were the cherry on top of the pie. He sounded so damn hot when he was horny.

She engulfed him again and kept a steady pace, sometimes just licking the glande and then bobbing on his cock, faster and slower. Everytime he began moving his hips with her movements, she slowed down. But enough was enough, and Niko grabbed her by the arms and lift her up.

“I want you. Now.” she whispered against his ear and licked his ear lobe. Niko put her on the table again and searched for his trousers on the floor. He picked up a condom from his pocket and ripped the package open with his teeth, quickly unrolling it on his cock.

Niko approached her on the table and placed himself between her legs, kissing her hard before making her lay down and wraping her legs around his waist. He teased her entrance with the tip of his cock, releasing a small moan from her.

“Please Niko, fuck me already.” she pleaded.

Niko granted her wish and thrust inside her with one movement. He took one of her legs and put on his shoulder so he could thrust her deeper and faster.

“Damn it Eva.” he groaned. “So fucking good and tight.” and he began thrusting her, slowly at first. One of his hands was holding her waist and the other one holding her leg up. As for Eva, she tried to hold herself on the table but failed miserably, so she just left her hands on top of the table. The feeling of him thrusting in and out of her pussy, holding her tightly, his expressions of pleasure were all helping built inside of her a second orgasm. Her hand found her clit and she massaged it lightly but Niko snapped her hand out from there.

“I decide when you get to cum.” he said and began thrusting her violently. Eva moaned loud, calling his name. She raised her body and her arms surrounded his neck, kissing his lips lightly while he kept thrusting inside her. Her hands traveled through his back, her nails scratching his skin and gaining a low moan from him, then landing on his ass. His damn fine ass. Eva squeezed it, pressing him against her.

Niko held her closer and kissed her neck, the tip of his tongue touching softly on her skin, tracing all the way from her neck to her shoulder, and then biting the skin there.

“Get up.” he whispered against her skin.

Eva obeyed and she climbed down from the table. Niko turned her back to him and placed her hands on the table.

“You still have such a nice butt.” he said and hit her ass playfully.

“You like it?” Eva teased.

“I like it very much.” Niko answered and thrusted inside her again. He gripped her hips and moved fast and hard. Eva moaned loud, trying to move with him. She gripped his hand and placed on her clit, demanding him to give her some kind of release. He massaged it slowly, while his cock moved fast, which only drove her more insane. It was clear he wasn’t planning on letting her cum soon. Niko touched her until he felt she was very close and then stopped touching her, his hand going up to touch her breast. He raised her body and hugged her from behind, still thrusting but now slower, sexier. Both his hands rested on her breasts, holding her close, and he began kissing her ear, neck, shoulder, than back to her ear, biting it hard.

Eva felt as if a joilt of eletricity had gone through her spine. Her skin showed signals of shivering from the caresses he was giving to her. Truth be told, it been too long she didn’t have this kind of amazing sex. Everything was even more exquisite because it was Niko and he was a damn good lover.

“I want you to cum.” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “I can’t hold anymore.”

Niko thrusted a few more times, taking it completely out and then thrusting back, deep before he took himself out of her and led her to the living room, to the sofa. He sat her on top of him.

“Oh, Eva.” he moaned and put both of his hands on her breasts. “Ride me.” he demanded.

She started moving on top of him, shaking her hips, trying to make friction between his manhood and her clit. Niko reached for her nipple and sucked it, slowly at first and then hard. He bit her sensive nipple and Eva moved faster, as fire someone had set her on fire. It didn’t take too long for her to cum, the muscles from her legs tensing up. Eva moaned his name and collapsed on his shoulders, her body convulsioning.

Niko held her tightly while she spasmed on his lap. She raised her head to look at him and they held each other’s gaze for a while before Niko smiled to her.

“Sweet Eva…” Niko whispered next to her lips, their foreheads touching. Both of his hands held her face.

“Niko…” she kissed his lips.

Niko held her by the waist and started moving again, thrusting powerfully in and out of her pussy. He seemed desperate to find his release, so he didn’t satisfy himself with the pace he was going. He held her close to his chest and gave a few more powerful, deep thrusts before he felt his cock twitching and finally, the relase he needed. Niko came hard, in frenetic movements, his eyes closed tight.

After he calmed down from his orgasm, he carried Eva to his bedroom and laid her down in bed before going to the bathroom to discard the condom. She felt sleepy, the lack of a good night of sleep and a good night of sex charging their price. Niko laid next to her, their breathing once mismatching were now serene.

Eva looked at him and he turned to her, his hand landing on her stomach.

“This was amazing.” Niko said and kissed her cheek.

“Uhum.” she agreed.

Niko touched the scar on her ribs, tracing its whole extention. He moved to the other scar, now on her shoulder, but he added his lips to the caresses.

“Who did this?” he asked.

“… it’s not important.” she tried to escape the question.

“Of couse it’s. Someone tried to kill you and I wasn’t there.”

“No, don’t say that. It was… as far as I know, the man was a professional sent to silence me about a case I knew too much.” she spit it out. “But I don’t wanna talk about this now.”

“Oh.” Niko said. He hugged her tightly, kissing her neck. “I’m so happy you’re here with me.”

“And I’m happy to be here.” she said and stayed quiet for a while before turning to face him. “I’m sorry for everything I did. I’m really sorry.”

“That’s in the past, Eva. I want to move on from that and begin something new with you, something good.”

Eva capturated his lips in a passionate kiss, the intensity of his words hiting her right in the heart. He held her tightly as if he was afraid of letting her go. Well, she definitely wasn’t going to leave that bed that night.

“I want you in my life.” Eva said between kisses before she started drifting off, feeling her body heavy.

Before she actually feel asleep, she saw Niko covering them with a blanket and kissing her forehead.


	7. Six

The light of the sun was trying to getpast the courtains of Niko’s bedroom when Eva started waking up. Shemoved a little and felt Niko pulling her closer to him, his hands around her waist.

She felt his lips touching the skin of her neck, tracing lazy lines until he reached her shoulders. There, he added his tongue to his caresses and sucked the place where her neck met her shoulder. Eva shivered with his touch and reached for his hair, pressing his head against her neck.

“Good morning.” Niko growled, pressing his body to hers. She could feel that he was already sustaining an erection. She rocked her hips and elicitated a low moan from him.

“Good morning.” she answered back before turning around to face him. “What time is it?”

“It’s nearly 7 a.m. I have practice this morning.”

“Aaaaaah, are you kidding me? I thought you where going to stay here with me!” Eva complained, burying her face on his neck. Niko closed his eyes and hummed in pleasure.

“I know, love, but my duties call. We have a match on tuesday against Malta.” he answered, caressing her hair while she made a trail of kisses on his adam’s apple.

“Oh, I watched the match you had this week…” she said, still kissing his neck, now reaching his collarbone. Eva knew she was making a good job on distracting him because he was moaning while she kept kissing him.

“Against Cyprus? Really? You didn’t tell me.”

“I was worried with other things. But you were so handsome on that silver suit and I love when you wear white button down shirts…” Eva had now reached his chest but he pulled her up. “What?”

“I really have to get up, I’m already late.” he said and kissed her lips softly. Eva could tell that Niko was trying desperately not to give in to her advances.

“You don’t want even a quickie?” Eva asked, pouting her lips.

“Damn.” Niko moaned. “I want to have you here and right now but I really have to go.”

Eva finally let him go and he got up, naked and with a raging erection. Eva observed while he tried to find his underwear, the muscles on his legs and abs contracting from walking from one place to another. She bit her lip hard because damn, he was doing that on purpose.

“I know you’re enjoying me naked.” Niko said and put his boxers on. “Sorry, I have to get dressed.”

Eva smiled.

“You still look so hot.” she said, out of breath. “I want you like that when you get back.” Eva pointed to his erection.

“You’ll have this and more.” he answered, kneeling on the bed to kiss her again, her tongue reaching for his, hot and demanding. He broke their kiss with a small bite on her chin. “Stay in bed and rest. I’ll be back by lunch time.”

With that, Niko gave her one last peck on the lips and left the bedroom. Eva stretched herself in bed and got back to sleep. She only woke up again almost 4 hours later, thirsty and hungry. She settled with Niko’s white shirt and went downstairs to eat something.

Eva fixed something to eat and laid on his sofa, zapping through the channels on the TV. Some of them were in english and some of them were in croatian, so she had to choose a movie in english so she could watch something and wait until Niko got home. Eventually, she slept on the couch and only woke up when she felt a warm hand touching her thigh and another touching her hand.

“Hey, sleepy-head.” Eva heard Niko’s tender voice calling her. She opened one eye and saw that he was looking at her, smiling. “You’re pretty tired, huh?”

“Tough week.” she groaned. Niko was caressing her thighs slowly, going up and down. He planted a kiss on her inner thigh, sweetly.

“You look better than I on this shirt, you should keep it.” he whispered against her skin. Niko’s hands traveled on her body, stoping only after riding up the shirt, and he pulled her to him, making her sit down. Carefully he opened one button after another, revealing her naked breasts.

“How about we take a shower together? I guess we both need it.” Eva suggested, watching Niko touch the skin between her breasts and down her stomach.

“That sounds like a good plan…” Niko whispered before his lips crushed into hers in an urgent and messy kiss. He placed both of his hands on each side of her head and held her there in place, his tongue taking its time, exploring her mouth. Niko caught her lower lip between his teeth, and Eva gave a low moan, almost a whisper. Before she could say anything, he was kissing her again, his hands burried on her hair, guiding her movements so that the kiss went on the way he wanted.

Eva broke the kiss so she could breathe and Niko took that opportunity to kiss her cheeks, her jaw, then her chin. She felt her body being carried while Niko still kissed her face. When she opened her eyes, she realized that they were on his rather luxuous bathroom and that she was being pressed against the sink counter.

When he dropped her, she appreaciated Niko for a minute: he was wearing black shirt and shorts that she thought it must be the coaching staff uniform. He looked delicious on it, as usual. Eva began taking off his shirt and was welcomed again with those damn six pack he had. She smiled looking at him and kissed his lips again.

“Wow… why so sexy?!” she whispered and he answered by finally removing the shirt she was wearing. Niko took one of her nipples in his lips, sucking it urgently, and Eva drew a sharp breath. His hot tongue found her skin and started moving, circulating her nipple while his hand squeezed lightly the other one.

Eva’s breath started to thicken and she helplessly tried not to explode, holding his hair in desperation.

“Niko!” she cried out and it only made him more aroused. He changed his attention to her other nipple. The more he sucked her nipple, the more she moaned. She didn’t even made any sense anymore, she was just a puddle of mess. Eventually, Niko released her nipple with a low noise of his mouth giving the last suck. He watched her for a moment.

“You’re irresistible.” he said, kissing her passionately. Niko took off her panties and she stripped him too, first his shorts and then his boxers.

“What are you going to do with me, mr. Kovac?” Eva asked as she caressed his chest.

“Ugh, don’t call me like that. It drives me insane.” Niko answered biting his lip.

“Why, you don’t like it?”

“I love it but it’s dangerous.”

“Hmmm, and why is that?”

As soon as Eva said that, she was pushed inside the shower and her back hit the wall. The water starting to run on the shower was the only thing she could process in her mind before Niko took both of her arms up on her head and began touching her wet pussy. His mouth ravished hers, their kiss turning into a mess envolving tongues, teeth and saliva. Niko pulled away and watched her intentively, touching her clitoris with the right amount of pressure she needed to writhe against the wall… and against Niko’s body.

“Calling me mr. Kovac…” Niko panted, looking dangerous. “Makes me so fucking horny.”

Eva was already crying out, begging for him to let her cum or just fuck her already! Niko seemed to be enjoying, he alternated between kissing her lips and bitting her neck while he inserted two, three fingers into her. He twisted them and hit her exactly the place she wanted. She let her head touch the wall and surrended herself to him.

“Niko…” Eva moaned.

“I want you to beg.” Niko said, his voice hoarse.

“Please, Niko…” she said.

He grabbed her jaw with one of his hands, gentle but strong and held her head in place.

“That’s not how I want you to beg!”

“Please, mr. Kovac, please.”

Niko held her stronger.

“Please _what?”_

“Please, let me cum, mr. Kovac!”

Niko’s lips found her nipples again. She didn’t even try to make sense anymore, her eyes closed shut, mouth open. Her eyes opened suddenly at the feeling raising on her belly, that delicious feeling that antecipated a good orgasm. Her hands reached for his hair and she brought his lips to hers. Niko increased his movements and their gazes locked while she panted from the upcoming orgasm.

Then it hit her harder than she could take, and she held Niko’s shoulders to have support not to fall. Her muscles spasmed and she tried to take control of her breath, but failed. While she tried to have some kind of control over her body, Niko was face to face with her, his breathing mismatched.

“You have no idea how hot you look while you cum.” he said, the hand he was using to caress her now was touching his cock. Eva only laughed and slapped lightly his shoulder.

“I’m a mess.” Eva noticed and laughed again.

“And I haven’t finished with you yet.”

Niko crushed her body against his, their mouths lost in an urgent kiss. His hands roamed through her body until they reached her butt and he lifted her up, locking her legs around his waist. Their mouths were still fighting for dominance when Niko began entering her, inch by inch, and she let go of his lips to bite her own, supressing a moan.

“We can’t…” she said, her voice almost a whisper.

“I know, I know. I just need to feel you. I promise I won’t cum.” Niko answered. He grabbed her hips and began thrusting steadily, while Eva alternated between kissing his neck and shoulders, and moaning at each deep thrust he gave. And at each thrust, her pussy was more and more wet, from the water running on their bodies and from her own juices. Was it possible to have bad sex with this man? She didn’t think it was possible.

“You like fucking me, don’t you? You like leaving me a mess.” Eva whispered on his ear and gained a loud moan in response.

“I love fucking your pussy. _So tight._ ” he answered back, his fingers craved on her butt, thrusting at each word.

“Yes, do it like that!” she moaned. Niko thrusted faster and faster until he took himself out of her, panting.

“I can’t take anymore, love.” he said and kissed her. Eva’s hands went to his cock and started to strike it again, fast. His body moved on the same rythm of her hands and soon he was moaning her name, asking to let him cum.

“Oh, you’ll have to beg.” she teased and bit his lower lip.

“Please, Eva.” he answered, still craving his fingers on her butt.

“Not like that, Niko.” and she stopped moving her hands. Niko groaned in desperation. “Call me your mistress.” Eva then began moving her hands again, hard and long strokes.

“Please, my lovely mistress! Let me cum on your belly.” Niko begged.

“That’s how I like it.”

Her hands moved fast skillfully and it didn’t take not even a minute to make Niko cum, shooting his seeds all over her belly and hands. He rested his head on her shoulder to try catching his breath. Eva stroke his cock a few times until he stopped cumming completely.

“I’ll never get tired of this.” Niko whispered on her skin. Eva giggled softly.

“You’re kinky, Niko.” she said and he looked at her.

“I’m not the one who asked to be called ‘mistress’.” he said and winked. “But I thought it was damn sexy. The mistress who I make mine in the shower…” Niko kissed her cheek. “On a table…” Niko kissed her neck. “In my bed…” and Niko finally kissed her lips. “And on the backseat of my car.”

“Well, mr. Kovac, I’m waiting for more places to be yours…” Eva said against his lips and capturated them passionately. Their tongues set up a sexy rhythm, very slowly but strong. Eva couldn’t get enough of his kisses and she thought Niko felt the same.

Niko took his time with her, soaping her body and making her clean. He trailed kisses on her neck, on her shoulders and down her spine, making her shiver, and whispered sweet words on her ear. It had been a while since someone took care of her like that and she happily let him dedicate himself to make her satisfied. In return, she took care of his third erection of the morning, this time with her mouth.

When they left the shower, Eva’s stomach was growling with hunger. Before she went to her room to get dressed, Niko told her that they were going out to have lunch, so she settled down with a jeans, a nice beige sweater, a red coat and a scarf. She met Niko on the living room.

“We are going to have lunch at Robbie and Anica’s restaurant, Vallis. Is that okay with you?” he asked.

“They have a restaurant? Niceee…” she answered, impressed.

“They do and it’s a very very good one. Let’s go, I’m staving.”

Eva and Niko left the house to face a chilling weather. She squeezed her coat around her body and Niko hugged her while they walked over to his car. They took their seats and Niko stared at Eva for a brief moment while she fastened the seat belt. She looked at him while he started at her and she raised an eyebrow.

“What?” she asked.

“Hm…” he cleaned his throat. “Nothing.” Niko started the engine of the car and took them to Vallis.

Robbie and Anica’s restaurant was beautiful place and she was mesmerized by the good taste. They sat by a table close to the door and ordered their food, along with a fine italian wine. Niko told her how much he loved drinking wine and how he was learning how to taste it properly. Eva couldn’t associate Niko with another kind of drink, to be honest. It was a classy type of drink to such an elegant man. She loved wine as well, but she loved beer like nothing else. And scotch, but only when she lost a tough case. Niko looked hot and dapper while sipping his wine, eyes closed, appreciating the taste. For a second, Eva couldn’t look anywhere else but him.

“What?” he asked jokingly.

“You look sexy while drinking wine.” Eva answered. Niko snorted and put down the glass

“You think so?”

“I’m sure of it. If there is one thing that can take my breath away is a man with good taste.” Eva winked and sipped her own wine. She raised one of her feet and touched gently Niko’s inner thighs, and he closed his eyes again.

“Eva…” Niko said, with a tone of warning in his voice. She put her feet down and smiled at his frustrated look.

“I’m telling you… you’re going to be the death of me, mrs. Strauss.” he said.

Eva was about to say something when a man approached their table looking at Niko.

“Niko! I tried to call you this morning but you didn’t answer!” the man hugged Niko.

“Really?” Niko grabbed his phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. “Jesus, you’re right. Sorry, Davor, I didn’t hear it!”

“No problem, my friend, I just wanted to discuss a few things before the game against Malta.”

“We’ll do that but first, I’d like you to meet someone.” Niko pointed at Eva, who was looking at them smiling. Yep, they hadn’t forgotten she was at the table. “Eva Strauss, meet Davor Šuker, president of the Croatian Football Federation.”

Eva stood up and shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you, sir.” she said. Davor laughed softly.

“No need to call me sir, Eva. It’s great to finally meet you, Niko talked a lot about you! But he didn’t do you justice, you’re far more beautiful than he said.” Davor smiled and Eva looked at Niko, who blushed. So he was talking about her to his friends, huh?

“Really?” she turned her gaze from Niko, who was trying not to look at her in the eyes. “I didn’t know that. It’s good to meet you too, Davor.”

“I’ll leave you two, then. Promise you’ll let me borrow this man tomorrow?” Davor asked, a mocking look of pleading on his face.

“I will think about it.” she answered, smiling. They both shook hands again and Niko patted his back.

“I’m gonna give you call tomorrow, okay?” Niko said before Davor left their table. Eva sat down again and kept looking at Niko while he was checking his phone. He looked at her and she laughed.

“So, you have been talking about me…” she pointed.

“Does that surprise you?” he challenged. “I thought you would know better.”

“It’s good to hear someone saying that to me.” Eva drank the rest of the wine of her glass. Niko nodded his head, smiling, and called the waiter.

While Niko ordered water for them, Eva heard a little sound coming from her purse and saw that she had a new message on her phone. She unlocked the screen and saw Audrey’s name.

_It has been two days since you last texted me. Are you alive?_

Eva laughed lightly at how exaggerated Audrey was. Niko looked at her with a half smile and an arched eyebrow.

“My best friend.” Eva said without waiting for him to ask. “She’s worried about me.” she typed:

_I’m alive and well. In fact, Niko Kovac is in front of me._

“What’s her name?”

“Audrey. And before you say anything, yes, she knows about you… she knows everything.”

“So, you have been talking about me…”

“You silly!” she joked outraged and he extended his hand on the table. Eva did the same and he held her hand tighly. Their fingers interlaced and Eva grinned looking at their hands. “Thank you for inviting me to stay at your house.”

“Nonsense. Thank _you_ for coming. I hope this is the first of many times you come to Croatia.”

“I hope the same.” Eva’s phone buzzed again and she opened Audrey’s message.

_Are you serious? Are you banging him, Eva Strauss? Can you send me a photo (no nudes, plz)? Because ya know, no photos, no facts._

“She’s asking for a photo of us… and she’s asking if we are 'banging’.” Eva laughed and Niko followed her, nodding his head in disbelief. Oh God, this is so Audrey. She missed her so much it hurted. They knew a lot about each other and were always capable of understanding each other’s feelings. Life was definitely less bright without her, but if she could, she would drag her to live with her in Germany.

“You met her in New York?” he asked.

“Yes. It was actually a strange situation… I was at the Statue of Liberty, doing tourist-y things with a boyfriend, and I scrambled on her, spitting all of the coffee I was holding on her clothes. We kinda got into a fight on that day. I few days later, I met her again at a theater. From that day on, she became like a sister to me.” Niko smiled at the end of the story.

“That’s nice.” he said. “So shall we give your friend a photo?”

“Sure!”

Eva put on the selfie camera and tried to find a position where both of them could appear on the photo. Niko raised his glass before she took the shot. The photo came out pretty good and she showed to Niko, who gave thumbs up.

“Our first photo together after 14 years… History is being made.” Niko joked. Eva only stuck her tongue out at him in response. Then she sent the photo to Audrey and it was when finally the lunch arrived.

The food was delicious and they had a great time together, from laughing at Audrey’s response to the photo ( _OH MY GOD, IT’S TRUE! How is he like? You know Erica has a crush on him since the World Cup, right? She’s going to dieeee when she hears about it)_ to just chatting about ordinary things. His company was so good and they got along so well… she had forgotten how much they had in commom, that’s why they were so in love back in the day. And that’s why she’s feeling so attracted again. They had a little fight to know who was going to pay for their lunch and ended up settling down with splitting the bill:

“Eva, you’re the most goddamn stubborn person I know! Stop screwing up with our date!” Niko complained. Eva gave him a 'bitch’ face while she handled the cashier her credit card.

Niko took her to meet a few places in Zagreb but they decided to spend the rest of their afternoon at Maksimir Park, where they took a long walk, looking at the view. Eva found the whole park breathtaking, so beautiful and comforting. They sat on a bench near the lake and Niko imediately put his arm around her, bringing her to him. He kissed her cheek sweetly and she turned to face him.

“You’re pretty romantic.” she said, moving her hand to indicate the place where they were.

“Does it work for you?” Niko asked, a cheeky smile on his lips.

“It does.” her answer made him smile even more and she capturated his lips. They were so soft against her lips and so gentle. He put his free hand on her neck and brought her closer, deepening the kiss. Their tongues played with each other slowly and Eva couldn’t avoid a low moan coming out of her throat. Niko’s lips parted from hers.

“You’re incredibly responsive to my kisses…” he said, tracing a line of cute kisses on her neck. Eva hummed in pleasure, giggling a bit when he kissed behind her ear.

“Don’t get so cocky, Niko…” she answered, her eyes closed appreciating his kisses.

“I won’t.” he said and stopped kissing her. They held each other’s gaze for a minute at least before he turned away.

“Can I ask you about something?” he looked at her again but only briefly.

“Sure.”

“You were talking that you had a boyfriend… I was curious to know if you met someone, you know, who comes closer to what you’re to me…”.

Eva looked at him, surprised. Where did that come from?

“Hm, sort of. I fell in love with someone years ago and at the time, he was the only one in my mind. For a brief period of my life I could stop thinking about you.” Eva smiled sadly.

“What happened?”

“It was complicated… We actually dated for a while and man, I was crazy about him. But before me, he had a girl who he was going out with and she got pregnant. It wouldn’t be fair to leave her without assistance, don’t you think? So we decided he should be with her, to support her and all.”

“Are you serious?” Niko asked, his eyes widened.

“Yup. They got married and everything. I guess they are happy, it has been 7 years. The kid is gorgeous.”

“I doubt they are happy.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he got married out of pressure. No one can be happy when they are with someone they don’t want to be, that’s obvious. I bet he still likes you and that if he had the opportunity to be with you again, he would.”

“What?” she looked at him, her eyebrows arched.

“Look, I’m just giving you another interpretation of this situation, I’m not wishing he would do that. I… I noticed you think you don’t deserve being loved and I think it’s a pity.”

“I don’t think I am lucky at it…”

“You know you’re saying that to my face, don’t you?” Niko looked obviously very annoyed. “I should be offended to know that you think nothing will come out from our relationship.”

“I’m not saying that, Niko, and you know that pretty well. I’m just saying that I had my share of experiences and none of them actually were successful.”

“Except for me. If our first relationship wasn’t successful, I don’t think you and I would be here, hugging each other, after an amazing shower sex.”

Eva smiled at him. Well, he had a point, didn’t he?

“You need to let go of these thoughts, Eva. People have different moments in their lives and sometimes it takes a while to find someone who fits you. You have a good career, a good life, you’re gorgeous… You have what almost everyone wants to have too. “

“And I feel that I am with someone who’s worth all of those things…”.

Niko kissed her desperately and that showed all she needed to know about his feelings. She even felt goosegumps from his reaction because there was nothing sexier than a man who was in love and could show that through actions rather than just words.

“Relax, Eva Strauss. We are meant to be together.” Niko said and Eva slapped his thigh playfully.

“Now, I have a question too.” Eva said, after they stopped kissing. “You said you got married a while after I left Germany. The question is: when did you meet Katarina?”

“Before I even met you. When we met at that party, I had broke up with Katarina one month before. When you and I broke up, we decided to try again.”

“And now you two broke up, and you and I are trying again.” Eva laughed at the irony of the life. It didn’t bother her, to be honest, it was just a funny situation.

“Ironic, huh?”

“Very ironic.”

They spent an hour there, between kisses, giggles, hugs and small talks. It was such a pleasant afternoon that she didn’t want it to end, especially because she was going to leave Croatia on the next day. They took another walk before going back to Niko’s house, since the weather started getting pretty cold. She was relieved to get inside of his house. Her whole face was freezing and her coat was a bit wet. Niko turned on the heat and took off his coat. Eva did the same.

“Look, I’m sorry for asking about your former relationships. But I think it’s important to be open about those things, especially if we are going to be serious about it.” Niko looked a bit insecure, as if this was a subject they couldn’t talk about.

“No, there’s no problem, Niko. I don’t wanna have secrets with you anymore.”

Niko smiled relieved at her answer and approached her.

“I have a proposal for you, then… Blankets, movie, wine and moi.” Niko said while he hugged her tighly. Eva made a mocking thoughtful face and he pouted. “Pleeeease. It’s freaking cold today.”

“Of course I accept, luv.” She kissed his cheek.

She changed into her pyjamas and climbed into his bed, right beside him. He hugged her and in just a few minutes, he slept in her arms. Niko was so tired that he was sleeping pretty deeply while she busied herself watching Ps. I Love You and crying at the movie. Damn it, she was emotional today. Eva caressed his hair carefully not to waking him up and kissed the top of his head, smelling the sweet essence of his shampoo.

When Niko woke up, she was feeling a bit sleepy, so it was time for her to take a quick nap on his chest. He also fondled her hair and her back while she was falling asleep. Eva made a mental note that she needed to do this more often with him, because he was so comfy.

She woke up an hour later and looked at Niko watching another movie. Her hands travelled on his chest and ended up near the waistband of his trousers. Niko moaned and took her hands lower, inside of his boxers brief.

“Impressive, Niko. 42 years old and you’re better than most of the young guys.” Eva stroke his cock slowly and Niko released a strangled moan.

“You’re naughty.” he whispered.

“I’m horny.” Eva said and climbed on him, rocking her hips on his prick. Niko grabbed her waist and increased her movements.

Their sex that night was sweet and she felt like she was the only one of his life. She felt sexy too, because he couldn’t stop saying how good it felt to be inside of her and how good it was to feel her skin on his own. She felt like her body was burning because she shivered at every touch. Or maybe he was too damn good in bed.

“I have to go tomorrow morning.” Eva said on his ear while she was hugged to him, her legs wrapped around his waist.

“Aaah, are you serious? Why so early?” Niko looked at her disappointed.

“Because when I bought the ticket, we weren’t together yet. Everything could have gone wrong, you know.”

“Oh come on!”

“Don’t act like that, Niko. We’ll see each other soon, I know.”

“I’ll be back to Germany only after the game on tuesday.”

“See, it will be soon.”

“Are you serious?” he looked at her incredulous. “I won’t survive.”

Eva laughed loudly and bit his cheek. Gosh, this man was too cute for her own sake! She looked at him, his beautiful eyes searching her face for an answer. She couldn’t figure out if his eyes were green or just hazel greenish because it depended on the angle. At dim light, face to face with him, they looked incrediby green. It didn’t matter, he was gorgeous either way.

“I’ll make up for it when you arrive in Germany.” she said. Niko closed his eyes in pleasure, nodding his head.

“Good, good. Look, Lara will arrive this week and I want to prepare dinner for you two. Would that be okay for you?”

“Of course it would be okay!”. The thought of meeting his daughter made her feel a bit excited, after all, it wasn’t just meeting a friend of his, but someone who he seemed to love very much. “Do you think she will like me?”

“She will love you, darling.” Niko kissed her lips. “There’s nothing not to love about you.”

She slept with Niko spooning her the whole night and for a second she felt sad for not living like this with him for the last 14 years. Well, she hoped they would have another 14 years to live like that.


	8. Seven

As soon as Eva was out of the plane and on german soil, she sent a message to Niko saying she arrived and was safe. He said that he would only meet with Davor when she arrived. Fortunatelly, the flight was a short one. After doing that, she also sent a message to her father, saying she was there already.  She arrived at home under a nasty pouring rain, soaking. Her father ran to open the door for her and greeted her with a tight hug.

“Aaah, dad, I’m soaking wet!” she exclaimed.

“I missed you, my baby girl.” he justified. He helped her with her baggage and she got rid of her coat and then her shoes. If there’s something she hated was getting soaked from an unexpected rain. 

“How was in Croatia with Niko? Did you like it?”

“Ah, it was great! Zagreb is a very beautiful city and I must come back to visit more places.”

“Did Niko take you to their most famous park, Maksimir?”

“He did and boy, why did I take so long to go there?! So perfect.”

“And everything went okay?” her father was with a look of expectation.

“Yeah, it did. Why?” she asked, her face turning red. Oh boy, she knew where he was going.

“No, I meant with Niko.”

“DAD!” she exclaimed, laughing. “What is this?”

“Come on, Eva! I’m asking if you two are together!”

“Oh my God, dad, I’m not going to answer that!”

“If you don’t answer, I’m going to call Niko and I’m sure he’ll answer it for you.”

Eva stared at him, her eyes widened in surprise. She was now really ashamed and didn’t know exactly how to answer it. Damn, dad, why so curious? She knew he adored Niko but it was like he was in a conspiracy to make them get together again. She chewed the inside of her mouth for a few seconds, with her father looking at her curiously, and then threw her arms up in the air.

“Ok, ok. We are noooot exactly together, alright, dad? But there’s something going on.”

“Was there any kiss?”

“GOD, DAD!” she laughed and turned around going upstairs, to her room. She felt like a teenager.

“I’LL FIND OUT SOONER OR LATE!” her father screamed while she was going upstair. Oh my God, can you believe that? 35 years old and having to deal with her father curious about her love life? She took off her clothes and stepped into the shower.

After taking a hot bath, she logged on her skype account in hope to see if Niko was online, but shit, life sometimes wasn’t fair and he wasn’t there. But before she could log off, Audrey called her for a chat. 

“You, ms. Eva Strauss, are going to tell me _everything_ about you and the hot coach!” Audrey said as soon as the camera focused, her american southern accent filling the room. Eva laughed loudly and gave her a cocky face. 

“You know I am irresistible.” Eva joked and Audrey nodded her head, smiling.

“No, really, honey. I know it’s a soap opera between the two of you, but… are you two really together?”

That question… again. “Ahem, well, I wouldn’t say together but on the process of being together. We talked, you know, a lot. We got to spend some time together and say things we wanted to say. I don’t know, I see a future.” Eva answered honestly.

“I’m so glad for you, E. I don’t know him, but I already love him. If a guy makes you feel like that after years, he definitely has something especial.”

“Oh, he does, Drey. He’s sweet and it’s such a nice company you literaly forget time is passing. But there’s more… I just can’t describe.”

“Maybe ‘I love him’ would be appropriate…”

Eva stopped to think for a moment: that is a phrase that would sum the whole thing up. She loved him. There was no point in denying that, even if she thought it was too early to feel like that. Was it really? Or it was natural?

“Don’t you think it’s maybe… too early?” Eva asked, insecure.

“Are you kidding me, Eva? Early? 14 years is early for you?” Eva laughed.

“No, don’t be ridiculous. We haven’t been together for 14 years!”

“No, you haven’t, but don’t just erase everything you’ve been feeling and that he must have been feeling. You two definitely have something really strong, otherwise you wouldn’t be together nowadays.”

Yeah, that was truth. It’s just… She couldn’t actually believe that a relationship that only last a little bit more than a year would be so intense like that. I mean, she had dated for longer periods and those guys never made her feel like that. Perhaps she was trying to rationalize too much. Perhaps it was better if she let go and just gave in to some of her impulses…. _No._ , she thought. _I can’t just dive into this like I was blind._

“Oh friend, there are many things inside of your head, huh?” Audrey asked concerned,  because apparently, Eva spent almost 5 minutes without saying a thing, just thinking. “Just live the moment, honey. Stop thinking too much about it! The guy is already yours, you just have to make the most of it.”

“Yes, I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right, babe.”

Eva laughed softly.

“So tell me, are you at his house?”

“No… uh, I was in Croatia until this morning and now I’m back in Germany. He has a match this week there.”

“Wait… so you two like, live in different countries?” Audrey’s eyes widened.

“Noooo! I mean, kinda of. He has a house in Croatia and he goes there often but he actually lives here, so he is here more often.”

“And he’s willing to be comitted to you despite the distance…”

“It doesn’t seem that difficult as you say, it’s Europe, Audrey. It’s like traveling to a different state in US but it’s from country to country.”

“I know, kiddo, still… So what’s more that I need to know?”

“Uh, I dunno. That I’ll meet his daughter this week? There’s nothing more to know.”

“You know what this means, right? That means he wants something 'more’ with you.” Audrey winked and Eva laughed loudly.

“You’re reading tooo much into this! It’s just a dinner with his daughter. I bet he does that with all the ladies he gets to meet.” 

“It’s his family, a part of him. Sometimes you’re too slow for someone so clever…” Eva looked at her with a mocking angryness.

“I’m trying to be cautious.” Eva said, matter-of-factly. 

“You’re being cautious with a man you’ve been thinking about in the past decade. You’re confusing!” Audrey said, her face contorted in confusion. “But anyway, how is he like nowadays?”

“He’s still super hot and he’s still amazing in bed, as I predicted. Actually, I think he’s even better now but maybe it’s because he was too… enthusiastic about it all.” Eva laughed and then went serious. “You didn’t tell Erica about Niko and I, did you?”

“You know I didn’t, you piece of shit.” Eva laughed loudly and stuck her tongue out to Audrey, who did the same. “I know it’s private and that he’s kinda famous and all of that.”

“Exactly. When the time comes, you’ll get to meet him in NY.”

“Planning on visiting us?”

“Definitely. He doesn’t know yet, but I gotta some stuff from the apartment to handle.”

“Christmas would be a great time to come… You could spend it with us.” Audrey pointed at her belly, that was beginning to grow.

“I wanna see your baby when she/he borns. I’m really sorry for not being there with you.”

“Stop apologizing! You left NY for very good reasons, Eva. I’m only seeing you through the camera and I already know it was the best for you. You look younger and less tired than ever.”

“I don’t have money, Audrey, stop trying to woo me.” Audrey laughed.

“I miss your humour, luv.”

“I miss you, you silly. And how is Gary doing?”

“He’s great, excited about decorating the baby’s room and all of that. We have moved to a bigger place and he’s just too happy about it all. It’s adorable.”

They spent a few more minutes talking about Audrey’s promotion and her new apartment. Eva was dying to see the apartament and even more, she was kinda pissed she couln’t be there to help her friend choose. She did a mental note to definitely visit her on christmas, with or without Niko. Since they were in different time zones, Audrey had to log off and Eva was left kinda alone in her bedroom.  
She got out of her room and noticed the lights were all off, indicating her father must have gone to his bedroom as well. Eva knocked on his door and waited for his answer.

“Come in, Eva.” he said loud enough for her to hear. She opened the door and got in. He father was curled in his bed and sheets, netflix on the TV.

“What are you watching, dad?” she asked, walking into his direction. She laid on the bed.

“House of Cards. I’m addicted.” Eva looked at him with a funny expression.

“Addicted to TV shows, huh? Lemme watch it with you.”

Eva curled next to him and he hugged her, engolfing her into a warm and protecting embrace. The type of embrace only a caring father could give to his child.

“I’m feeling extremely happy that I have my baby back here with me.” her father said. “Don’t go away again.”

“I won’t, daddy. Now I will have time to take care of you.”

“I will take care of you too.” he kissed her forehead. 

She didn’t know how much time she spent there but she watched a whole season of House of Cards, so it must have been hours. When she came back to her room, she checked her phone and found one message from Niko from 2 hours ago. _  
_

_“I’m sorry I couldn’t talk to you today but I had that meeting with Davor and another training. I have another one tomorrow too and I’m kinda anxious for the match. As usual. Anyway, I can’t wait to see you again and kiss those lips. I hope you have a nice night and a great day tomorrow. I’ll be on a plane to Berlin wednesday morning. Take care, love, g'night.”_

Eva smiled like an idiot and read the message at least 5 times. It should be prohibited to be this cute and caring. Like, really. She went to sleep with her heart beating so fast that it seemed like it was going to explode.   
  
——-  
The next two days were the busiests for Eva. She worked from morning until the end of the afternoon, only stoping to have lunch and to send a text here and there to Niko. She went from meetings to phone calls and to her office and to another meeting. Most of the time she was on the phone dealing with problems from the company. Since she didn’t have a secretary yet, she needed to do her job and the job of a secretary.

By the end of tuesday, she was already exausted. She was organizing her stuff when one of the lawyers came to her office. Bianka, that was her name.

“Hey, Eva? We are going out now to have a drink, do you wanna come? I think you could use a little bit of relaxing.” she said.

“Hm, yeah, that would be nice.” Eva smiled and picked up her stuff. 

“The boys want to watch a football game that it’s airing tonight, from UEFA or something.” Bianka was saying as they walked towards the elevator. _OH MY GOD, the match! I forgot completely!_

“Hm. Is it the Croatia match? I know nothing about football but my father was talking about this match today.” Eva said. Liar. She knew about the match because her beloved one was going to be there.

“Yes, it is. Alexander roots for Croatia as well and wants to watch the match, but it’s a good opportunity to just hang out with everyone, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, definitely.” She needed a bit of socializing, to be honest. But she needed to watch the match as well. She dealt pretty well with her co-workers but only inside the office, because she had never socialized with them outside. Eva typed a message to Niko quickly, that said _“I’m going to watch the game with my co-workers. Good lucky tonight!”_ , before she stepped out of the elevator with Bianka and found their co-workers waiting outside of the building.

“Look who’s coming with us!” Edmund, one of the secretaries, exclaimed as he saw her. Eva giggled soflty and slapped lightly his arm.

“Come ooon, we have to go! The match will start in 30 minutes!” Alexander said, anxious. _Yes._ Eva thought. _Let’s goooo! I don’t like football but I love the man who coaches the team. Love. Oh my God. I can’t believe I just thought that._

A part of them took a cab and the other part went on with Alexander in his car. It took them 15 minutes to get there and the TV was already set on the channel that was going to air the match. Eva ordered a beer to start the night in a very good style. Bianka contorted her face as Eva sipped her drink and hummed in pleasure.

“I just can’t understand how someone can like beer.” she said and sipped her own drink, a strawberry juice with vodka. Well, Eva couldn’t stand or understand vodka. It always made her feel sick afterwards.

“I can’t understad vodka.” Eva said, laughing.

“Look, who’s on TV…” Paula approached their table and pointed at the TV. “This coach is heaven on earth.” Eva looked at the TV and saw Niko giving an interview, his black suit so perfect on him. Eva whistled.

“Is that the croatian coach?” she asked, trying to look as if she didn’t know him.

“Yeah. Hot, huh?” Paula said.

“Pretty hot.” Eva answered. By pretty hot, she wasn’t saying “the guy on the TV is pretty hot”, she was saying “the guy who drove me insane in his bed on the weekend, who happens to be on TV, is pretty hot”, but she couldn’t say that out loud. 

“That guy must be married… All of those hot guys are married.” Bianka said, huffing. Eva stifled a giggle by drinking her beer again. She wasn’t jealous at all, much to her surprise, but she found the situation very amusing. Well, it looks like he really turned into a heartthrob, or something like that. She must be lucky to be with him, then… Or maybe (and that was probably the truth) she was indeed that attractive.

“Huh, perhaps he is.” She wasn’t jealous but she wasn’t going to give them hope. When the time comes, she would introduce him to them. Until then, she was going to pretend he was just the head coach of Croatia NT.

“His brother is quite cute, but he’s married to a model. Pity.” Paula said. Eva nodded in agreement, thinking about Anica. Yes, Robbie was cute indeed and for a period of her life, when she met him and all, she had a crush on him. Just a tiny little crush, because he was cute and a great guy. She never told him that because it didn’t last long and because he was already with Anica. It would hella awkward. 

Eva spent the night between paying attention to the game and chatting with the ladies, since all the guys were too busy just watching the game, except Dominic, who didn’t like football. From time to time, the camera man would focus on Niko on the edge of the pitch, screaming at his players or just observing the match. He looked… delicious, for the lack of a better word. She felt even a shiver at her spine watching him cheering when they scored a goal. Croatia won Malta from 2-0, Niko must be so proud of the team. 

She sent him a message: _“You guys won! Congrats!”_. Probably he wouldn’t answer her today, because they would celebrate the win. Much to her surprise, a few minutes after his last interview, she felt her phone buzzing with a new message, and it was from Niko.  
 _  
_

_I’m sorry for not looking at your messages before, I was too tense. You watched the game? You don’t like football, Eva._

She rolled her eyes at the message. He didn’t get it, did he? Or he was trying to make her say it?  
 _  
_

_No, I don’t like it but I watched it for you._

She was imagining his motherfucking smug smile when he read her message. He must be full of himself because he made her doing something she doesn’t like for him.  
 _  
_

_Is that so? What a nice surprise. Thanks for watching and thanks for cheering. It means a lot. I’m about to get in the bus with the players, talk to you later, ok? Kisses._

Eva bit her lip, feeling as if there were butterflies in her stomach because well, that was the kind of effect he had on her. She thought that he was going to get cocky but… no. He was actually a cutie patootie with her.

She decided to go home, so she said her goodbyes to Paula and to a very drunk Bianka. She paid for her beers and when she was about to leave, she felt someone touch her arm, calling her attention.

“Are you leaving?” Alexander, one of the lawyers, asked.

“Yup, I’m still tired from traveling.” Bullshit, Eva, you wanna go home so you can sleep earlier and find Niko on the next day.

“Can I give you a ride?” he asked, a small smile on his face. Alexander was without a doubt one of the most handsome lawyers she has ever seen. 

“I can take a taxi, Alex, there’s no need for you to leave because of me.” she answered. Alex’s face dropped a little bit, as if he had hope she would accept. She felt kinda sorry for him, so she decided to accept. “Ok, I’ll accept the ride, but only if it’s now, because I really have to go.”

“Give me 5 minutes!” he said and dived into the crowd of people that was starting to gather. He came back after almost 5 minutes later and he said goodbye to everyone from the office. Paula shoot her a teasing smile and Eva looked lost. She waved and they got into the chilling breeze of the night.

“My car is over there.” he pointed to their left and they started walking. 

“So, Eva, I was dying to ask you about something.”

“Shoot.” she said.

“Are you from here or from US? Because everyone says you came from there but your german is great.”

Eva gave him a genuine laugh.

“I was born in here, Alex. I went to live in US when I was 22 years old and now I’m back. So, there you go, this is why my german is great.” Alexander laughed at her answer.

“That explains a lot. Why did you come back? I hope that’s ok to ask…”

“No problem. My father, he got sick and I came back to take care of him. It was not serious but I thought it would better for him if I was around.”

“My car.” Alexander pointed at a black Volkswagen parked in front of them. They got into the car, and after she told him her address, he left the parking lot.

“So, how long have you been back?” he started the conversation again.

“2 months, now.”

“It’s recent. Isn’t it the same time you’re in the office?”

“Yup, I sent my CV when I was still in US and fortunatelly, they called me pretty quickly.”

“Everyone was impressed with your CV. No one there ever worked with someone who had worked for years at Wall Street. The lawyer’s offices there have a good reputation.”

“You make it sound like it’s glamurous but it’s actually like slavery. I worked 12 to 15 hours a day to win my cases. The paycheck was…well, I couldn’t complain.”

“I bet you lived in a good place there.”

“I did, I used to live in Manhattan. But, you see, sometimes the paycheck is just not worthy the amount of stress. Our office, for example, is quite good, pays pretty well and we can have a social life.”

“And do you have a busy social life, Ms. Strauss?”

Eva giggled and waved her hand in the air, dismissing his question.

“No, I don’t, but I like to go home at a reasonable hour and do other things that are not related to work.”

“I see…” Alexander answered, thoughtful. “Here we are, Eva.” 

They had arrived at her house and she didn’t even notice it. She smiled.

“Thanks a lot, Alexander. I took you out of your route tonight, but thank you.”

“Not a problem to me. Good night.” he smiled as well.

“Good night.”

When she was about to leave the car, she heard him calling her name.

“Yeah?” Eva answered.

“From all the women I have ever worked with, you’re the most beautiful one. And the most interesting. I thought I would let you know that.”

Eva tried not to look so fucking surprised because she didn’t want to upset him, but shit. _Shit_. She should have figured that out. She battled a bit in her mind, trying to find something to say that it didn’t sound rude, but couldn’t find anything.

“Thank you.” was all the decent answer she could come up with. That seemed enough for him, since he gave a bright smile to her. 

Eva waved goodbye and walked to her house. How was she going to solve this? No, she couldn’t have another man in love with her, it was too much to handle. She pulled her phone from her pocket and huffed in disappointment when she saw that there was no new message from Niko. She decided to stuff herself into bed and sleep, so the next day could arrive quickier.

————

Eva woke up with her phone ringing and she didn’t have the time to look at the screen to see who it was before she answered.

“'ello.” she said, her voice hoarse.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.”

“Niko, good morning.” she mumbled this time, recognizing his voice straight away.

“I think you’ll make me addicted to your voice saying my name in the morning, Eva.” Niko said, his voice almost a groan. Eva giggled softly.

“I won’t object to this.”

“I hope you don’t. I just called to say I’m leaving to the airport. Can you pick me up there?”

“Wait.” Eva blinked a few times. “What time is it?”

“It’s nearly 9 am.”

“Oh shit, I slept too much.” she raised quickly from the bed and started getting herself ready.

“You did. Stop running on the room trying to get ready. You’ll fall on the floor!” he said, laughing. “My flight leaves at 10 am, so I’ll be there around noon, ok? Can you be there? If you can’t, there’s no problem, love.”

“No, I can!” Eva exclaimed, trying to put her jeans on. “I’ll pick you up! I’m just trying to find my bra!” Niko laughed loud.

“Just don’t fall there. See you later, kisses.”

“Kisses, Niko. See you.” she answered and hung up. She ran to her closet and picked a light pink button down shirt, the first one she saw. Light makeup, hair brushed and held in a ponytail and her black scarpin heels. It took her 20 minutes to get ready and she was feeling proud. She caught her jacket and left the house without even having a breakfast.

Luckily, the traffic wasn’t horrible so it didn’t take her too much to get to her job. She caught a frappuccino at Starbucks on the way to the office. Eva said her good mornings to everyone and went to her office, followed by Paula, who was smiling from ear to ear.

“So, how was it?” Paula asked.

“How was _what_?” Eva asked back, her eyebrows furrowed.

“You and Alex… you know…” she gestured with her hands.

“What? You think Alex and I…?” Eva laughed. “No, no, Paula. There’s nothing between Alex and I!”

“Oh come on! The guy is the hottest one in here and he’s sooo into you!” Paula exclaimed.

“Could you, please, keep your voice down? He’s in the next office!” Eva said, in panic.

“Okay…” Paula kept her voice at a reasonable tone. “But why?”

“I’m not interested.” she said, simply.

“You’re insane!” Paula nodded her head, bitter. Eva laughed again.

“Now, off you go. I’ve gotta all these resumés to analyze because I need a goddamn secretary, otherwise I’ll freakout.” Paula turned around, rolling her eyes. She was about to leave the room when she stopped and looked at Eva.

“Think a little bit more… he’s nice.” Paula said and ran out of the office before Eva screamed at her.

Damn, that was annoying. Yes, ok, Alexander was handsome and a lovely person, but that was all. Her heart was still going crazy because of Niko and it seemed like it would remain that way. She wanted to stop this thing about Alex by introducing Niko to them but she didn’t want to expose him. _Nice_ , Eva thought, _my life never stops getting complicated. I guess I should talk to Niko about it._

She spent the next hour looking at the resumés on her desk and setting meetings with possible candidates for the job. When it was about 11 am, she left to pick Niko up at the airport. She was a bit… anxious to see him again. They hadn’t seen each other in 3 days but it seemed like it was a month. She tried not to drive as if she was going to save someone but her anxiety made her drive a little faster than usual. 

Eva walked through the large airport looking for the arrival gate from Croatia, almost running. _Why am I running?_ , she asked herself. _STOP RUNNING, EVA!_ , she demanded to herself. She calmed down and started walking, the noise from her heels on the floor a bit too loud. 

When she found the gate, she noticed that there were a few people already disembarking and tried to see if she found Niko. More people left the door and no sign of Niko. She was about to call him when she spotted him, jeans, black polo shirt, ray-ban glasses on. He smiled brightly at her and she couldn’t stop herself from smiling dumbly. Eva didn’t know how to greet him, if she should kiss him or just hug or maybe none of those things because they were in public, so she left him do what he wanted to do.

Niko approached her and placed both of his hands on each side of her neck, pulling her to a hot kiss. His tongue demanded entrance as soon as his lips touched hers, and she granted, his tongue exploring her mouth. The kiss only lasted a few seconds but it left her aching for his touch.

“Hey…” Niko said, his forehead touching hers. 

“Hey.” she answered, hoarse. “You shouldn’t do that or I’ll fall in love with you.”

“Is that possible? Maybe I should do it again.” and he kissed her again, this time soft and caring. They parted and started walking towards the entrance of the airport and to the parking lot, where Eva left her car.

They were almost next to the entrance when they heard someone calling Niko. They both turned around and saw a woman coming towards Niko. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. Eva widened her eyes, her jaw dropped and she tried to figure out if she was just going insane or something like that because _someone just fucking kissed Niko in front of her!!_  
Niko backed off from the woman’s embrace and looked alarmed at her. 

“Cecilia, what are you doing?” Niko asked, a hint of desperation on his voice.

“I missed you so much!” Cecilia said, fixing her hair in a charming way. _WHAT…_ , Eva thought, outraged. “Hello!” she turned to Eva and smiled to her. 

“C _e_ cilia, this” Niko pointed at Eva. “Is Eva Strauss. My _gilfriend_.” Niko made sure to emphasize the word “girlfriend”. Eva smiled from ear to ear to Cecilia and extended her hand.

“Hello!” Eva said. Cecilia shook hands with Eva, now visibly embarassed. 

“Nice to meet you. I should get going… Nice to see both of you.” Cecilia waved goodbye and left as fast as she arrived.

Eva turned around and walked towards the parking lot without looking at Niko or caring if he was even following her. No, no. She was angry, so angry that she could murder someone. Niko was smart enough not to say a word to her until they got to his house, otherwise she would have thrown him out of the car.

She helped him carrying his baggage to his house and left it on the living room. When she was about to turned around to leave, she heard him calling her name very soflty, almost pleading. Eva looked at him serious.

“What is it?” she asked, her angriness preventing her from thinking.

“It wasn’t my fault.” he said. Eva closed her eyes, licking her lips. 

“I don’t wanna talk.” she whispered. Her voice sounded dangerous and Niko knew that. “I have nothing to say.” 

“But I have.” Niko said, stubbornly.

“I already said…” She was furious. “I don’t wanna talk.”

Niko went towards her but she backed off. He looked offended and tried to touch her, but she dodged him.

“Don’t act like this, Eva.” he sighed. “Please, let me…” but he didn’t finish his sentence. Eva left his house without looking back and left him standing in his living room, hurt.


	9. Eight

Eva almost ran trying to get into her car and get out of there. No, it wasn't his fault, she knew it. Cecilia kissed him and not the contrary, she had eyes, she saw it. It didn't make any easier for her to “accept” it and don't feel angry.

Boy, she felt angry and outraged, and an idiot at the same time. It was such an uncomfortable and an uncalled-for situation. Eva wanted to cry and that was what she did as soon as she got into her office and closed the door. She didn't sob, no. She wasn't hurt, her cry wasn't out of sadness but angriness, hate. She even punched her desk once so that the feeling would dissipate a little bit. It didn't help at all.

On her desk, her phone buzzed here and there, indicating she had received new messages and missed calls. She only looked at them, fighting the urge to answer and say something idiot.

_“Eva, please, talk to me. I'm so sorry about what happened.”._

_“Don't hurt me like this, Eva. Please, can I call you?”._

_“I'm going to pick Lara at Katarina's house, it's my turn with her. I'm going to prepare that dinner, please, come over.”._

_“We HAVE to talk. Stop acting like this.”_

She cried again looking at his messages, her mind confused about what she should do. Should she just forget about what happened? Perhaps it wasn't fair to him if she acted this way, you know, as if it was his fault. She followed an impulse and sent him a message:

_“I'm coming to the dinner. 8 pm I'll be there.”._

The rest of the day was almost unbearable, with all those meetings and things to do. She didn't even have lunch and spent the rest of the time drinking coffee so she could have energy to end the day. She didn't feel as angry as she was before, but there was a strange feeling making a residence in her heart and she felt tired of it. It wasn't supposed to be this hard for them, not after all those years apart and the sorrow they carried through.

Eva sent her father a message telling him she was going to Niko's house and around 8 pm, Eva arrived at his house. She had stopped by a mall and bought something for Lara... a Batman pillow, since Niko had told her Lara was a geek. There was no reason denying she wanted to pleasure Lara, after all, she was his daughter. For some minutes, Eva stayed inside the car wondering how she should act once she got into his house. Should she act angry or pretend it didn't bother her anymore?

Or maybe she should just step back for a second and try not to give in to her feelings and actually rationalize. Yes, she was going to do that. She stepped out of the car and slowly walked towards the his house. She breathed deeply before she rang the doorbell.

Seconds later, a teenage girl opened the door and Eva figured out it must be Lara. She had a lot of traces of her father's features but her hair was light brown and her eyes a greyish blue, so that must be from her mother. She was very, very gorgeous.

“Eva?” Lara asked, grinning.

“Yeah, hello!” Eva greeted her. Lara stepped aside from the door to let Eva come in.

“You must be Lara, right?”

“That's me.” and the girl gave her a large smile. Her smile was definitely heritage from Niko.

They walked to the kitchen, the smell of food in the air. Eva grinned thinking how much she actually liked Niko's food. If she was angry the whole day, now she couldn't understand why there was so much rage in her heart.

“Daddy got a little trouble cooking the meat, so the food is not ready yet.”

“There's no problem. Hey, I bought something for you.” Eva handed her the present.

“What? You didn't need to...” Lara widened her eyes in surprise, dumbfounded.

“Of course I needed to...”

“That's very nice of you.” Eva heard Niko saying from the kitchen counter. He smiled and Eva couldn't stop herself from doing the same. His gaze on her was so intense she was feeling embarassed. His eyes were pleading for her forgiveness, as if he had done something wrong, as if he was the one who kissed Cecilia.

Damn, he always looked amazing when he was cooking. He got the hang of it, didn't he? She didn't know that she would find a man cooking so sexy but she did and he knew that. There was no way she could read wrongly that small smile he gave her.

“ _Awesome_!” Lara exclaimed, taking both Niko and Eva back to reality. “Thank you so much!” Lara hugged Eva, making Niko chuckle.

“I think you are good at giving presents...” Niko pointed out, resuming his cooking. “Wanna help me? The two of you.”

Eva took off her shoes, for they were killing her, walked towards him and took the knife from his hands, while Laura went to the oven check if everything was ok with the food. The three of them finished cooking the dinner together, laughing and talking. Eva definitely forgot why she was angry in the first place. Ok, somebody kissed Niko on his mouth right in front of her, but he didn't reciprocate. It didn't matter what happened because she was the one he chose to be with... at least, that's what she thought. The whole domestic situation of cooking together and acting as a “family” went right into Eva's heart. She couldn't argue after that.

They finished cooking and took everything to the dinner's room, the table at Niko's house huge enough to accommodate a family of 10 kids. Was that his plan when he first married Katarina? Did the plan backfire? Or she didn't want it or maybe he regreted wanting it...

Eva enjoyed the dinner so much she lost track of time, chatting enthusiastically with Lara, who was telling her everything about Russia and her school, her friends, her hobbies, while Niko observed them, talking here and there. Eva didn't need to be a genius to read his expression: blissful, almost dreamy. Then Lara decided to take Eva to see her Comic Books collection and they spent another time talking about it. She was very talkative and Eva was suspecting that Niko had told Lara a lot about her. That was nice, though, because Lara seemed to be very open to meet Eva. Not all teenagers are the same, right? That was his plan all along, wasn't it? To let his daughter soothe her gradually until she couldn't argue.

Niko appeared on the door of Lara's room, pointing at the clock.

“Little lady, you have to go to sleep. You have school tomorrow.” he said. Eva looked at her with a sad expression and Lara was about to protest when Niko raised one finger before she even say anything.

“Okay, dad...”

“We'll talk tomorrow, dear. It was very good to meet you.” Eva said.

“Aaah, okay. It was good to meet you too, Eva.” Lara replied, reorganizing her stuff on the shelve.

“Good night.” She winked at the girl and left the room.

“Night, love.” Niko kissed his daugther's head and followed Eva downstairs to clean the dishes. She was just putting the plates in the sink when Niko surrounded his arms around her hips and pulled her to him.

“Please, stop being angry at me.” he pleaded. Instinctively, Eva placed her hands on top of his.

“I'm not angry at you.”

“Then stop avoiding me.”

Eva turned around to face him and he held her by the waist.

“Niko, I was angry at the situation. It made me feel like an idiot.”

“I'm so sorry, love... Can I kiss you?”

She let Niko pull her into a passionate kiss. He won, after all. She wanted to be touched by him again, wanted to be kissed. Their kiss held so much feeling and she was vulnerable. It wasn't fair to be on her knees for him like this.

They broke their kiss, much to Niko's disapproval, because he tried to capture her lips again and this time, she pulled away.

    “I’m sorry… I’m just… I don’t want you to feel insecure about us or about yourself.” Niko said, his fingers caressing softly her hips. He couldn't hold eye contact with her.

    “What? Nooo…” Eva nodded her head. “I’m not insecure about myself. I know who I am and I know I’m pretty and sexy.”

Niko gave her a half smile when she said that. That was the truth, you know? She wasn’t insecure about herself, she wasn't going to pretend that she had problem with her self esteem. She knew the amount of power she had over men.

“I was hurt because it was uncomfortable. I felt pathetic to be with you and someone else kissing you. I felt pathetic because I didn’t have a proper reaction. It was as if someone had slapped me in the face.”

    She blinked a few times, her tears threatening to show up. _Don’t you dare cry, Eva Strauss. Stay strong, show him you’re tough._

    “What can I do to make it up for you?” He asked, his expression sad. _What? No. Damn._

    “Please, I don't want you to 'make it up for me'. I'm not asking favours in return, Niko. All I ask from you is this, what we had tonight.” she gestured to the whole kitchen, trying to make sense, trying _not to say a family, a domestic life_. “But I want it everyday.”

“Is that what you want? It's easy to give it to you.”

“Yes but I don't want it to be 'easy to give' because of the wrong reasons.”

“It's easy because I couldn't think of anything else I would ever want more with you.” he said without even a second thought, without hesitation.

_Oh there it's, the right reason. Niko, will you ever stop surprising me?_

Eva hugged him tighly, her face buried on his shoulder.

“How can you be like this? So open to dive in a relationship with me...” she said, suddenly a single tear rolling down her cheek. What the heck was that? Why was she so sensitive about?

“Why are you afraid?” he pulled away a bit, only to be able to look at her face. “You're resisting me.”

Eva didn't want to look at him anymore. She didn't want to admit her mind was confused: she wanted him badly, but that at the same time, she didn't want to get hurt.

“Look at me, Eva.” Niko demanded. “On friday, what did I tell you?”

“What?” she looked at him. _What did he tell her, anyway?_

“I told you that if we kissed, if we slept together, there was no going back for me. Are you afraid I changed my mind about that?”

“Of course not. I'm just afraid of... getting hurt. My mind is confusing. Sometimes it screams how much I want you, but sometimes I just don't want to fool myself into thinking you want the exact same thing I want.”

“You think you know what I want?” he asked, a bit angry. “Have you asked me before starting to resist me?”

She opened her mouth a couple of times, trying to find something to reply but nothing came out. Her silence was already an answer.

“You didn't, that's it. You jumped to conclusions about me. The minute my lips touched yours, I knew that I wanted you, us. I've been denied that and you know pretty well how much it hurts because you felt the same.”

“Aren't you afraid too??” she asked.

“No.”

That was all the answer he could come up with?

“Why?” she had to know.

“Because I trust you with my feelings. Plus, it will hurt more if I don't 'dive' into our relationship... I just can't stay away from you.”

Oh man, he was brave. How could she feel cautious when he was a hundred percent in?

“Niko...” she whispered, now close to his face. “You're unbelievable.”

“Listen to what I'm going to say...” Niko began, holding her back, not letting her kiss him. “ _I am in love with you,_ get it? I want you to be my girlfriend. Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

Eva closed the space between them, this time taking charge of the situation. If she was going to surrender, at least she would surrender taking control of him. He seemed surprised by her reaction 'cause he stayed paralyzed for a moment before responding to her kiss. Still, she was the one leading him, making him groan here and there. It was good to be the boss once.

Niko broke the kiss with a grin, his eyes fixed on her lips.

“I will take that as a 'yes'”.

She could see the lust in his eyes, the hazel green of his iris almost covered by dilated pupils. He was pressing her hard against the kitchen countertop and she could feel his hard on against her belly. It was starting to bother her despite being so damn horny, because the countertop was hurting her back

“We should go upstairs...” Eva said with a grin.

“We should...” he whispered and took her hand, guiding her to his bedroom.

As soon as they entered the room, Eva pressed him against the door, her hands travelling inside of his shirt. He shivered when she touched his abdomen and she took that as an approval to go up until she reached his chest. She trailed kisses on his cheek, his jaw until she reached his Adam's apple. There, she added her tongue and that made him release a strangled moan. One of his hands went to her hair, caressing softly.

Eva took off his shirt and resumed her kisses, covering the whole extention of his chest with hot kisses. She took a moment to look at him: he was resting his head on the door, his mouth half open. When he saw she was looking at him, he shot a devilish smile.

“You can be incredibly mean.” he said, his breathing shallow.

“But I thought you liked...” she started.

“I do.”

Eva kissed all the way down to his abdomen, stoping when she reached his sweat pants and she heard Niko taking a sharp breath. Eva caressed his bulge, first with her hands and then with her lips, blowing air and giving featherlike kisses.

He was surrended to her touches and she couldn't avoid moaning against his bulge, which made him tighten his grip on her hair. There was nothing she liked more than to be on charge of sex, especially because Niko could look so helpless. Ok, she liked too when he was the one leading the act but it was better to see him like this, pleading for her mercy. She removed his sweat pants, setting his cock free.

Her tongue slowly touched his glans and he spasmed, but only for a second before his muscles relaxed again. She swirled her tongue a few times, then her lips touched the glans, engulfing it softly, her tongue still moving in circles. She did that a couple of times, making the head of his prick moisturized. Finally, Eva put his whole cock inside of her mouth, sucking it. Niko was trying not to moan by bitting his fist, because there was a teenager on the next room and they couldn't wake her up. She was doing her best not to make any noises, now it was up to Niko.

She took his member in and out of her mouth, sometimes taking a moment to give the head an extra attention, sometimes pushing him down her throat. She also combined her hands stroking him, and she knew he was going insane so she decided to start slowing down her movements until she stopped completely. Eva made her way back, kissing his abs, his chest until she was face to face with him again.

Niko kissed her until she was gasping for air.

“I thought you were going to finish me like this...” his voice sounded the hoarsest she has ever heard.

“Of course not, love. I would never end the fun that quickly!”

His lips curled in a mischievous grin.

“Do I get to be on control again?” he asked.

“No!” Eva answered, her voice with a fake angry tone. “Tonight I am the boss here and if you don't obey, I'll punish you.”

“Oh really? And what would be my punishment?”

“How about a week without sex?” she tried and was pleased to see him shaking his head, his mouth contorted.

“That's just too cruel.” he complained.

“That will only happen if you don't obey, my love.”

“I think I can manage that...”

“Good.” Eva started pushing him towards the bed. As he sat on the edge of the bed, his hands reached for her body but she pulled away from him. Eva began stripping herself: first the bottons from her shirt, slowly enough to torture him, who was looking attentively at her hands.

She took her shirt off and went for her jeans, all of that without breaking eye contact with him. She knew she was taking him to the edge and that she was going to pay for it sooner or later. It didn't matter, for now, she only wanted to enjoy every moment of this. Eva stood there, only in her white lingerie.

Her bra came off first and finally, her underwear. She was feeling extra confident tonight. Not that she wasn't confident normally, of course, but tonight her level of confidence was high. She walked towards him and it was delicious to see him shifting in his place, anxious for her to reach him.

Niko's hands reached for her breasts and she allowed herself to receive pleasure but never stopping being dominant. His tongue touched the tip of her nipple and she hissed, making Niko shush her. Right, Lara was in the other room. He was holding both of her breasts now, pleasing her with his hands and tongue. Niko was hungry for her, now switching his attention to the other nipple while she supressed her moans. He stopped sucking her nipple and pressed his nose against her chest and now against her belly, smelling her.

“You smell so good, love. It drives me insane.” he said. Eva heard him purring while kissed her skin.

His hand travelled down her body, reaching her wet center. She gasped when he touched her and put her hands on his shoulders to support herself. Oh boy, he was very good at pleasuring her, wasn't he...

He resumed his attention to her nipple, while his hand was busy between her legs. Eva was trying her hardest not to moan loud but that was getting impossible due to his third finger being inserted inside of her while his thumb was giving attention to her clitoris. She was used to be loud during sex, basically because she likes to voice things out. She likes teasing, dirty talk and loud moans that don't hide how much she is enjoying it. It was such a torture to be obliged to stay quiet, she couldn't even dare to give a single loud moan.

Eva started to whimper as her orgasm began building inside of her, that well-known feeling invading her body. Some would say that at this point she completely lost control of the dominance game but she would argue the contrary, because he was obliged to make her climax and that was what he did. Her hands clutched his shoulders desperately as the waves of her orgasm washed over her. Her body spasmed a few times before everything was over and the only feeling she felt was weakness. Eva rested her head against his neck and he whispered on her ear.

“Lost control, my lady?”

Oh no, he was not going to get away with it. She was still the boss here, the game was still hers. Eva's hand reached for his cock again, squeezing it.

“Please, have mercy, I was only joking!” he whispered in desperation.

“You don't get to brag because you made me orgasm. It was your obligation.”

Niko gave her a small grin, the one he always gives when he is pleased, but quickly his expression went serious again, his eyebrows furrowed. She better stop stroking him otherwise things would end too soon.

“Where's the condom?” she asked.

“On the top drawer.” he indicated the bedside table and she went to search for it. “Eva? I...Um, I know it's kinda early but I really want to stop using condom someday...”

When she came back with the condom, she was smiling: she wanted that more than him perhaps. She wanted to feel him and only him.

“I'm going to fix that for you soon, ok?” she said while unrolling the condom on his cock. His cheeks were ruddy, his face mere inches of hers. “But while that doesn't happen...” she continued. “Lay down.” she demanded, pressing her finger on his chest and he obeyed. Eva strode him, taking his member on her hands and guiding him to her entrance.

She slowly took him in, inch by inch, until he was completely inside of her. Niko was watching her attentively, his mouth half open. He gripped her waist and started moving, and Eva cried out, imediately putting her hand on her mouth to muffle the sounds.

“I'm very sensitive today, I'm sorry.” she said.

“Never apologize for that!”

Eva set her own pace, adjusting herself to him. She shook her hips a few times before she went faster, thrusting hard. His hands had moved from her hips to her breats, squeezing them lightly each time she thrusted.

She increased the speed sometimes, shaking her hips, making circular movements, and then she slowed down, swirled her hips while he watched in amazement, his hands alternating between roaming over her body and pinching her nipples. He really didn't know exactly were to put his hands. Eva was really putting all of her efforts to fuck him properly.

“Having fun, Eva?” he asked, hoarse.

“Oh yes, definitely.” she moaned back, her voice only a whisper. There was a trail of sweat on her back. “You?”

“Best thing I could ever ask for... You enjoying yourself while riding my cock, so fucking delicious.”. Eva rotated her hips again and he rolled his eyes, bitting his lips. “I can't... I really can't take anymore, love.”

Eva began moving faster, slaming her hips against his. Niko grabbed her ass tightly and helped her go even faster. She placed both of her hands on his chest and changed the angle of their thrusts, each one going deeper. A few more powerful thrusts and Niko started to cum, his hips trying to slam into her in erratic movements. His eyes were shut so tightly, his mouth open in a shape of an “O”, his muscles very tense.

When Niko stopped climaxing, Eva laid on top of him, her heart beating so fast she was breathless. Watching Niko cumming was probably one of the sexiest things ever.

“You can't do that to me, Eva.” he said, his breathing still short. “I'm not in my twenties anymore.”

Eva gigled softly and kissed his chest.

“Nonsense, you still have stamina.” she answered and he looked at her.

“Really? You almost killed me!” he joked and she pinched him very softly.

“Come on, I'm not _that_ good.”

“You are... More than that, you're sexy as fuck. But you have enough self confidence, I'm not going to lick your boots.”

Niko hugged her tightly while she laughed at his remark. He kissed her head and they stayed a minute like that before she felt her legs a bit numb from the position.

“I need a bath...” she said and began rising. Eva walked to the bathroom, followed by Niko. She entered on the shower stall and and turned on the water. Her body started to relax as soon as the hot water hit her shoulders.

“Can I join in?” Niko asked outside the stall.

“Of course you can.” she answered.

She heard the door to the shower stall opening and Niko getting in. His hands touched her back, massaging them. He went from careful touches to harder ones, trying to release the tension from her. He moved up, reaching her shoulders and neck. Eva leaned her head on the wall, feeling weak from his touches, moaning low when he squeezed a rather sensitive spot of her neck.

After a couple of minutes she turned around to look at him. Eva was impressed at how handsome Niko was... Not that he was ugly when she first dated him (fair enough, she had a different taste for men and her friends used to joke she wasn't good at picking hot guys) but he was more charming and a nice man than actually handsome. Now she was not going to even deny that she was seduzed by his looks, and apparently, she wasn't the only one who thought that. The color of his eyes were so gorgeous, his cheekbones so sharp they could cut you and his nose... _Wait a minute._

“Niko, your nose... you...”

“What?”

“You did a nose job?!”

“Oh my God!” he began laughing. “Did you only notice this now??” he was incredulous.

“Yeah, yes! How, when?”

“I broke my nose once during a match and it got really nasty and crooked. I didn't care at first but it was really terrible, so I decided to fix it. But I went under the knife again because years later, I had a hard time sleeping because of my breathing and I was snoring to the point Katarina was going insane. This last time it changed my nose a bit.”

“Only a bit... and it looks _perfect_ now.”

“You think so?”

Nah, she was sure of it. Maybe the change on the nose made him this handsome. Who cares though? He was naked in front of her, why was she so concerned about a nose?!

“Yeah...” she answered and chuckled lightly because of her own thoughts. Niko was still massaging her neck and shoulders, ocasionally going to her chest. He kissed her forehead and Eva smiled.

“You look tired.” he pointed out.

“A little. I haven't had the time to rest, I just went from working overnight to my father sick then to a new job. The last months were a mess.”

“Maybe you should take a break or work just a little less. I would love to take you to the beach in Brela or Split and we could sail too.”

“That would be nice, Niko.” she whispered smiling and rested her head on his chest. Niko hugged her tightly and for a moment there were no worries in her mind, only Niko and he sound of his hearbeat.

“Stay tonight.” he said, after a moment.

“Huh?” she was so relaxed that she was almost sleeping there.

“Stay with me, I like spending the night with you.” he said again.

Eva grinned: _who could deny this kind of request? She couldn't, could she?_

“You don't even have to ask again.” she answered.

They finished taking their bath and snuggled together in bed, Eva laying her head on his chest. However, Cecilia was still bothering her. She tried to relax but everytime she remembered the kiss, she felt dumb again.

“I know you're thinking about Cecilia.” Niko said, making her jump a little in surprise.

“How do you know?”

“You're tense. The only thing I can imagine that would make you this tense today is Cecilia.”

 _Yup, guilty as charged._ But Eva didn't answer, she just stayed there in silence.

“I met Cecilia this year during a charity event. I was instantly attracted to her”, he began. Obviously he was attracted to her, who wouldn't be? She was tall, her hair was of a very golden blonde, her eyes were very blue. The typical german woman. “We went out a couple of times, eventually had sex. We were going out, nothing serious. This happened until august, when I went to visit your father and I saw you again at the hospital.”

Eva raised her head, looking at him.

“So you stopped seeing her after you saw me again.” she concluded.

“Yes.” he agreed.

“Lie.”

Niko rolled his eyes, obviously pissed.

“Why would I lie about that?”

“Well, I don't know!” she shrugged. “But we can both agree she is too gorgeous to be forgotten like that.”

“She is very very gorgeous, Eva but I am in love with you, remember that? It wouldn't be fair to her if I kept in touch.”

 _Yeah, it would,_ she thought.

“Anyway,” he proceded. “It was good, I'm not gonna lie but now I have you, right?” he breathed hheavily and turned to kiss her. It was a very sweet and meaningful kiss. “It's your turn.”

“To what?”

“To tell me a little more about you. For example, your scars.”

“Nah, what you said wasn't enough to make me reveal the truth about my scars.”

“Oh, it wasn't?” he looked surprised, a small smile playing on his lips. “Maybe I should tell you that I _love you_. Would that convince you?”

“ _OH MY GOD, WHAT”_ , was all that she could think of. She shushed him by putting her hand on his mouth.

“Noooo, don't say it in such a frivolous way!! Please, just don't.”

Eva was scared of the weight of these three words he seemed to want so much to say. She wanted to say it too but maybe she wanted to say when nothing else could describe what she felt for him. Now it was definitely not the time. Actually, if she didn't know him, she would have run away.

“Okay, I'm sorry.” he said, taking her hand on his and giving it a kiss. “Now will you...”

“Ok, ok.” she answered. “These...” she pointed at her scars, “are the result of me not shutting my mouth when I was supposed to.”

“Elaborate.”

“I was working on a typical case: company, white collar crimes. I was the lawyer of the CEO of the company and during of those cases, I discovered by accident that he was raping his assistant in order to make her shut up about his dirty business. I knew too much and I wasn't going to shut up about it, so he decided to silence me.”

“When did that happen?”

“Early this year. After that happened, I requested a license to practice law here because I was scared, you know, and I wanted to leave as fast as I could. I thought I was only going to come back by the end of this year but then my father got sick in august and I sped things up. So here I am.”

“So...” he began, brushing his fingers on her shoulder scar. “Gun shot?”

“Yeah... I was coming back from the office and it was really late. As soon as I got into my apartment, he shot me on the rib. It hurts like shit...” Eva breathed heavily remembering that day. It seemed like that happened during another life. “Then I ran... or tried to because of the pain, and I reached for the gun I had – yeah, I had a gun license.” she amended when he widened his eyes. “I shot him twice on the chest and he shot me again on the shoulder. He died, thankfully.”

Eva didn't know if she was tense because of the memories or if she was kinda amused by Niko's expression. He obviously didn't think the story was that serious.

“Wow, I've never met someone who had killed somebody.” he said, still surprised.

“Well, I kinda had to. Anyway, that was it.”

“And what happened to the other guy, your client?”

“Oh, he was arrested and there was a huge investigation about him. Didn't you read about him? The Fischermenn scandal?”

“That one envolving fraud over the production of guns and the government?”

“Yes, exactly that one!”

“You were lawyer of the company? I didn't think you were this important. But funny, I didn't hear your name on that case...”

“That's because they were trying to protect me.”

“Uh.”

They spent a minute quiet, each of them dealing with their own thoughts. Eva was sleepy so she curled next to Niko and closed her eyes.

“Thank you for telling me.” Niko said quietly.

“Thank you for being honest about Cecilia.” Eva replied and he kissed her forehead. “Good night.”

“G'night.”

 

\-------------------------

Eva wanted to die when she heard her phone alarm, a piercing sound and she almost wished she could destroy her alarm and go back to sleep. She tightened her grip on Niko's waist , trying to stay a little longer with him and he caressed her arm.

“We have to wake up.” he whispered sleepy. Eva moved closer nodding her head.

“Noo, I don't want to!” she answered and he chuckled in response. They spent 5 minutes curled and half asleep until the alarm rang again and they finally began waking up.

As usual on her mornings, Eva was on automatic mode, so she went downstairs to fix them breakfast while Niko woke his daugther up. Lara arrived at the kitchen with the typical not-in-the-mood kind of face and Eva placed a plate of pancakes in front of her, which imeddiately put a big smile on her face.

“I haven't eaten pancakes in the breakfast in ages!” she said happily and put a pancake on her own plate. Eva smiled back and went to eat her own pancake. Niko sat next to her with two cup of coffees and gave one to her.

“I can't understand how this young lady here always wakes up so grump!” Niko said, looking at Lara.

“I hate waking up early, daddy.” Lara mumbled.

“Why? It's great, you get to have time to do a lot of things.” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. Eva was looking at him with a mocking disgusted face.

“Your father is saying that because he doesn't need to wake up early to spend the whole day studying or working.” Eva said, stucking her tongue out to him and he laughed.

“What can I say? My work is different. Like today, I'm going to go to golf with the president of a football club.”

“See?” Eva said. “You'll be doing that while we mortals will be sitting our asses on a chair.”

Lara smiled at Eva ahd gave her thumbs up while Niko nodding his head, chuckling. They spent a few minutes eating silently, Eva trying to fully wake up, Lara devouring three pancakes and Niko reading the newspaper.

“You have fifteen minutes to get your stuff before we go or you're gonna be late for school.” Niko said when Lara finished her breakfast.

“Yeah, I'll be right back!” she answered back and went upstairs running.

“Don't run on the stairs, Lara!!” Niko yelled desperated. Eva chuckled lightly. “What?” he asked curious.

“Nothing. I just never thought I would see you like that, you know, 'father mode'.” Eva answered smiling. He nodded his head laughing.

Eva and Niko finished their breakfast and she got dressed. By the time she was downstairs, Lara was already going to the car and Niko was waiting for Eva. She left the house and Niko grabbed her arm lightly.

“See you tonight?” he asked, his gaze so penetrating.

“Of couse...” she answered, kissing him. They shared a brief kiss, Niko still holding her arm and Eva trying her best not to snog him right there.

“Good morning, Eva. Drive safely, please?” he said after they split.

“Good morning. You too, okay?!” she answered back, throwing a kiss to Niko and waving goodbye to Lara.

 

\-------------------------

When Eva arrived at home to take a quick bath and change her clothes, she thought that her father would be sleeping but there he was, watching the sports channel... at 8 am.

“Well, good morning, daddy. I would very much like to know why are you awake at this time watching... hm, rugby?” she stood in front of the TV crossing her arms.

“Maybe because my child spent the night out and I wanted to make sure she arrived safely?”

“Are you aware your child is 35 years old? Stop that...” she said when he was trying to foil her by looking at the TV. She turned it off and looked at him, challenging.

“Okay, okay.” he said, finally giving up. “I wanted to know if everything went alright with the two of you!”

“Oh my God, again?!” Eva laughed surprised. Unbelievable how much he took the task to reunite her with Niko so seriously. “Dad, look at me: we are together. Now you can stop your 'watch' on us.”

Eva couldn't even describe her father's expression because he was so happy and was smilling brightly, as if she had won the lottery. Hardly the case. But yeah, it was understandable the reaction since he liked Niko so much and wanted them together. She wanted them together too.

She changed herself to clean clothes, kissed her father goodbye and headed to her work. She passed by everybody's offices and desks saying good morning, sharing a few smiles here and there – one particularly strange with Paula – and went to her office. As soon as she entered the room, Eva saw a big bucket of daisies on top of her desk.

 _Oh my God, I LOVE daisies. Aw, what a good way to start the morning!_ , she thought to herself, picking the bucket and checking the card inside of it. She really thought they were from Niko but panicked when she saw Alexander's signature.

 

_Beautiful flowers for such a beautiful woman. I hope you have a great day._

_\- Alexander_

 

“Oh no.” Eva moaned.


	10. Nine

“You've gotta be kidding me.” Eva wandered around her office trying to find a way to dismiss Alex's attempts at flirting with her. Should she just say she was not interested? Or that now she wasn't single anymore? _Oh god._ She stopped walking. _I'm not single anymore._ After a month of hours of skyping, flirtings and a wonderful weekend in Croatia, she was with Niko Kovac again. If someone told her a few years ago that she would find him again and that he would reciprocate her feelings, she would call that person crazy. But now there they were, forgiving the mistakes from the past.

She heard a knock on the door and told the person to come in.

“Look at you, receiving flowers on your office!” Eva heard Paula exclaiming, excited.

“I bet you have something to do with that...” Eva replied.

“I only told him I knew you liked daisies.”

“You just didn't know I was taken, right?” Eva was annoyed, to say the least. Why was she trying to hook her up with Alex? Had they made a bet? Jesus Christ, how annoying.

“Are you being serious?” Paula sounded disappointed.

“I'm dead serious. I'm not single even though it doesn't look like.”

“I was... I didn't see a ring or anything, so I just figured out you were single. Sorry, I was just trying to help Alex maybe going out with you. So... is it out of question?”

“If I wasn't monogamous, I would definitely go out with him because Alex is just fucking handsome but since I am... I think it's a no.”

“Ah Eva, I'm so so sorry, seriously.” Paula was obviously disconcerted.

“It's okay...” Eva tapped her shoulders. “You did nothing wrong. Why don't you put these beautiful daisies on your desk? It would be nice, don't you think?”

“You don't mind?”

“Of course I don't, dear. Take it.” Eva indicated the flowers and Paula smiled.

“But first I think you need to talk to Alex, don't you?” Paula suggested.

“You're right.”

Eva left her officed and marched straight to Alex's office that was on the other side of the room. She knocked on his door.

“Who is it?” she heard his voice from the other side.

“It's Eva, can I come in?”

“Yes, sure!” he answered and his voice sounded happy. Oh boy, she was going to crash his heart in a second. She entered the room and found Alex leaned on his desk, his arms crossed and a cheeky grin on his lips. “Did you like the flowers?”

“Yes, they are lovely, Alex. Uhm, I don't know how to say this...” Eva began and then stopped, sighing.

“Would you like to go out on a dinner with me?” Alex tried, approaching her.

“See, that's what I need to talk to you about. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression but I'm taken.”

“Oh. Ouch.” his smile faded.

“Yeah, I'm very sorry.”

“I suppose I was an idiot to think that you would be single, let alone interested in me.”

“You're a very handsome guy, Alex! If I was single, I would be all over you already but” and she stopped because he giggled at her remark. “... I'm not. So, thank you for the flowers anyway.”

“If one day you get single, can I make the invitation again?”

“Sure you can. Don't get your hopes high though, I don't plan on getting single again in my life.”

“Ok. I'm sorry for all of that.” Alex said, facing the ground. Eva approached him and gave him a hug. Poor guy, he didn't do anything wrong. She was imagining if it was her instead of Alex, how she would react. Those things are difficult, when you have feelings for someone who would never give you a chance or someone who's not single. They broke the hug and Alex looked reluctant to let her go.

“Who's the lucky son of a bitch?”

“Ah, I don't know if you would believe me if I told you.”

“Why is that? Is he from the mob or something?”

Eva laughed lightly.

“Hardly. He's not insanely famous but he's kinda well-known to people who enjoy football, especially croatian.”

“Really? So who is it?”

“Niko Kovac.”

“The coach? You're lying. How... when...”

“I met him a long time ago.”

“I don't believe it, he's... he's married, isn't he?”

“Come on, look at me and tell me if I look like someone who would go out with a married man! Here...” she knew that if she didn't show a picture of them together, nobody would believe it. Eva had taken a few pictures of them at Maksimir park on the weekend and there was one of them by the lake, very couple-y.

“Look.” she handed the phone to Alex. Eva saw his jaw dropping and he looked at her serious.

“It's true.” he said. “I'm a huge fan of his work.”

 _Damn, I forgot that... Alex is his fan. Now I will have to get his autograph and all of that._ Eva thought, massaging her temples with two fingers.

“Yeah, I know.” she grabbed her phone back. “I'm sorry. Again.”

“I want to meet him someday...” See? She knew this would happen.

“I can arrange that one day.” Eva answered.

“And if you ever leave him, don't even hesitate to tell me.”

Eva giggled softly and assented. She turned on her heels and left the room. To be honest, she didn't even know if she did the right thing by telling him who she was dating with but it was her life too, right? Imagine trying to hide who you're dating with...

When she got to her office, Paula was still there, probably waiting to take away the daisies.

“How did it go??” she asked, chewing her nails.

“Fine, he's still alive and well.”

“Really Eva, I'm so sorry for doing this! If I knew you were dating I would have never tried to hook you up with him and...”

“Paula.” Eva placed both of her hands on the other woman's shoulders. “Relax. Everything went well, he's aware that I'm taken and we are all great.”

Eva was starting to like Paula, she reminded her so much of Audrey: the way she talked without stopping to breathe a little, her great mood in the morning. It wasn't her fault Alex is – or was – interested in her.

“Paula, I am dating Niko Kovac. The same coach we were talking about on the bar two nights ago.”

“Are you serious?! I thought you didn't know him...”

“I faked. I've known Niko ever since he was a player.”

“Wow.” Paula was nodding her head smiling. “Congratulations, girl! He is... Oh my God, I said he was hot at the bar! I'm sorry I...”

“But he is hot, so no problem with stating that.”

“Damn girl, you're something else!”

“Come on” Eva laughed. “I got lucky.”

“Uhum, right.” Paula jokingly punched Eva's arm softly. They were still giggling when Albert Klotz, their boss, arrived in the room.

“Excuse me, ladies? I have to talk to Ms. Strauss privately, can I?” he politely asked. Eva and Paula exchanged looks and Paula left the room.

“Sir, good morning.” Eva smiled, also politely.

“Good morning. As you maybe be aware, your reputation precedes you, Ms. Strauss. One of our clients was mentioned in a trial for making part of a money laundering scheme and now he is being investigated.”

"With all due respect, sir but my work here is with contracts, not white collar crimes.”

“You know,” Albert crossed his arms and Eva noticed he was carrying a file. “When I received your resumè early this year, I didn't have to think not even for a minute to decide you were going to be hired. Who wouldn't want Eva Strauss working with them?”

Eva didn't have to be a genius to understand right away what he was implying.

“So I was... I was actually hired to be the white collar crimes' lawyer?”

“Let's say you were promoted... I know you weren't applying for this position but there's no one here who has your reputation. This is a very important client.” he answered as-matter-of-factly.

“You do know what happened to me in US while I was working with white collar crimes.”

“Of course I know but that doesn't erase your amazing reputation. Plus, that was an atypical case. All I ask you is to look at the file and see if you can make a good case.”

“Why?”

“Everybody wants you. If you ever open your private office, you're going to find that out. In the meantime, can you read the file?” he handed her the file and she took it.

“Am I going to get a raise? I know I don't have much time working here but you know, working with this kind of case is very tough.”

“Anything you want, just make sure you give your best.”

“I always do. How long do I have to build a defense?”

“A week or less.”

“I can work with that.”

“You _have_ to work with that.” Albert sentenced and Eva assented, opening the file.

“Good luck.” Albert wished and left her room. Is this real? Eva almost ran away from the United States because her work with white collar crimes were becoming a headache for her and went to Germany to work with something normal and peaceful, but karma is a bitch, right?

So she spent almost the rest of her day studying the case after handing her previous work to other lawyers. During her lunch time, Eva received a message of a good friend of her but she only got to see it later when she was about to leave work.

“ _Eva? Are you dating Niko Kovac?”_ Attached with the message, there was a link to a croatian website. Eva accessed the link and her jaw dropped: there they were, walking down by the lake at Maksimir Park, laughing and hugging. Damn those paparazzi, she thought that Niko wasn't _that_ famous?? Or that people weren't that interested in his life??

Eva dialed her friend's number, not giving a damn she was in New York and that they were in different time zones.

“Hello?” she heard her friend's voice at the other end. She was probably sleeping.

“What is the website saying?”

“Hello to you too, E. Lucky you I wasn't sleeping or I would take a flight to Germany right now just to kick your ass.”

“I'm sorry, I... I freaked out.”

“The website says nothing special, only that you used to be a model and that now you're a lawyer, that you two were seen walking on Maksimir Park seeming pretty much in love and all of that. Is it true?”

Eva was partially relieved... At least they weren't saying any shit about them.

“Yes, it's true. Damn, I didn't want to draw the media's attention.”

“My dear, Niko Kovac was always a hero to us. Now that he's the coach, he's even more loved in Croatia, no way he was going to start dating someone without the newspapers knowing.”

“Ah crap...”

“Was it supposed to be a secret? Are you his secret lover?”

Eva laughed out loud.

“Well, no. I'm just his girlfriend.”

“See? Nothing to worry about. Now tell me, how did you manage to do such a miracle?”

“What? Dating Niko?” Eva completely forgot she never told Mina about her story with Niko or even that she knew him. “We met at a party... we have friends in common.”

“I need to go to these same parties, E! I love Mario Mandzukic, can you introduce him to me?”

They both laughed. She started searching her mind trying to remember which one of the guys she saw on the game tuesday was Mandzukic... and then she remembered.

“The tattooed one? We can solve that...”

“That one. Or maybe Robert Kovac, now that he is your brother-in-law.”

“I'm not married yet so he's not my brother-in-law... plus, he's married.”

“Ah, yeah...” Mina sighed on the other side and laughed. “Eva, nice to talk to you but it's late here in NYC so I gotta sleep, honey.”

“Yeah, yeah! Oh my God, I'm really sorry!”

“Stop apologizing and lemme sleep. Good night, E.”

“Good night, Mina.”

Eva hung up relieved. Her dignity was not damaged, the newspaper weren't saying anything bad... Now she could go home. As she arrived there, she saw Niko's car parked on the garage. She entered the house and found Niko, Lara and her father playing chess... well, actually Lara and her father were playing while Niko gave his daugther tips.

“Hello everyone.” Eva greeted and received a kiss as a “hello” from Niko. “Can you come upstairs? I need to show you something.” Before passing by where Lara and her father were playing, Eva noticed Lara was going to make a wrong move in the game. “No, no, I wouldn't do that. If you do, you can say bye bye to your horse.”

“Taught her everything I know...” her father said, giggling while Lara tried to analyze the game better.

Niko and Eva went upstairs to her room and she threw her suitcase on the bed.

“Before you say anything, it's nothing related to sex.”

“Ah shit, I knew things wouldn't be that easy!” Niko whimpered and Eva slapped his arm playfully.

“It's actually this.” Eva grabbed her phone from her pocket, accessed the news about them dating and handed to him. Niko didn't even express any kind of reaction, he gave her the phone back and waited until she said anything.

“You knew about this?” she asked.

“Robbie showed it to me this afternoon. Honestly? I'm not surprised.”

“You could have told me...”

“What for?”

“Well, I don't know... Maybe because it's my life too. I find it annoying, I don't want to mess with your privacy, Niko.”

“You're part of my privacy but the papparazzi don't always respect that. It's only bad in Croatia, okay? Here in Germany we won't have any problems.”

“I know, I know but it makes me insecure. Am I allowed to talk about us or maybe I should just pretend we don't...” Niko cut her off by raising his hand.

“Don't you dare pretend you don't date me! You're part of this relationship, of course you can talk about us. Fuck the press, let's live our relationship without worrying about them. Plus, it doesn't give me bad press if I'm dating such a gorgeous lady.”

Eva giggled and pulled Niko for a hug. She buried her nose on his neck and breathed in his perfume, fresh yet sensual, and kissed his neck softly, taking her time to enjoy the way his beard was starting to grow and scratched the sensitive skin of her lips. While she did that, Niko stroked her hair, putting a strand behind her ear before snapping her back to reality with his deep voice.

“How was your day?” he asked.

 “Good... except that today I found out I'm back defending companies on white collar cases.”

“Should I be worried about your safety?”

“No, it's all fine.” Eva giggled. “I just wanted to work with something that gives me less of headaches.”

“That's why I am here... to relax you.” Niko kissed her neck and she closed her eyes again, letting herself be fondled. “What do you think about changing into some comfortable clothes and watching a movie with me, your father and Lara?”

“That sounds like a plan...” she whispered back on his ear and pulled away to change clothes.

“Ah, I forgot to tell you that next week I'll have to attend a coaching congress in Russia.” he began saying while she was removing her shoes. She muttered “are you kidding me” and he shook his head in response. “I'll be there for only a day. I need you to take care of Lara for me.”

“Wait, what?” Eva froze. She had never in her life stayed more than a few hours in the company of a teenager, let alone a whole day. “Does Katarina know that?”

“Yes, she knows and she's fine with it. Come on, it's just a day.” Eva could see that Niko was finding her reaction amusing. There was nothing amusing about her taking care of Lara.

“But I've never taken care of someone like this, you know. Except me.”

“Ah, then you'll have no problem, my love. It's the oportunity to socialize the two of you... Lara liked you.”

“She did?” Eva was surprised. She completely forgot that she had to please Lara too, after all she was Niko's daughter.

“Don't sound so surprised, Eva Strauss. Now, will you stay with her?”

“Of course yes.”

“Good, after all you're going to be her mother-in-law someday.” he said and Eva stopped in awe. _Fuck, I didn't think about it this way_ , Eva thought, a little shaken. _I was never mother-something to someone. Jesus, take me the motherfucking wheel, I'm not up to this._ “Eva?” she heard Niko snapping his fingers to her.

“Niko, I've never... I was never treated as mother-in-law to someone. I was always 'daddy's girlfriend' or 'your father's girlfriend'.”

He smiled to her but didn't give her an answer. He didn't need it. Eva went back to changing her clothes, noticing Niko was growing uncomfortable each time she took off another piece of clothing. It took her a minute to figure out he wasn't exactly uncomfortable but rather aroused. Eva stopped and looked at him with an eyebrow raised, her hands behind her back ready to remove her bra.

“Do you like it?” Eva asked teasingly.

“Very much.” he answered, a little hoarse. “Go ahead, I wanna see it.”

Eva removed her bra and was about to put on her shirt but Niko raised a finger, indicating her to stop. He rose from the bed and walked towards her. His fingers touched the skin of her shoulder in a delicate way, tracing a line from one shoulder to another, then to the middle of her breasts. He stopped there and looked directly at her.

“I think it's best if you put that damn shirt on before I do something I can't.” he spoke, sounding way more hoarse than before. Eva took his hand in hers and kissed it.

“It's good to know I still make you aroused.” she whispered.

“And I hate you for that.” he laughed lightly and kissed her forehead. Niko stepped away breathing heavily. “I said to your father it would be a good idea if we ordered a pizza, what do you think about that?”

Eva giggled lowly at the sudden change of subject. So strip-tease made him that off-puting, huh? Good to know. She finished changing and walked towards him.

“That's a good idea but daddy can't eat pizza because of his health.” Eva kissed his lips lightly, touching the tip of her tongue on his lips. He gave her entrance and she deepened the kiss, placing her hands on his neck. Yes, she knew she wasn't making an effort to help him get rid of his erection so that they could go downstairs but she wasn't giving a damn about it. Niko backed off from her carefully.

“Please, I need to...” he pointed at his pants.

“Ok, love.” Eva stepped away. It tortured her to not be able to just shag him there. “Hey, um, I was talking to Audrey and you know, she's pregnant. I'm sure I won't be able to see her baby but I want to see her before that. Plus I need to figure out what I'm going to do with my appartment there so maybe I'll go to NY this year.”

“Why not?! When do you want to go?”

“December. We could spend our christmas there.”

“That sounds great.”

“Really?”

“Uhum. Lara will spend the christmas with me this year, I bet she would love to go to NY.”

“Aaah, thank you!” Eva was about to hug him but remembered he was trying to calm down. “Okay, um... sorry.”

“Normal effect to you, my dear. I feel like a teenager.” he laughed. “It's strange because I thought that these things” he pointed at his pants again. “only happened when we were young but I guess it depends on the woman we have around us.” Niko smiled.

“I'm flattered.” Eva gave him a cheeky grin.

“Oh, shut up.” Niko laughed again and began leading her out of the bedroom.

Lara and her father were still playing chess when they arrived downstairs. Lara's forehead was frowned in concentration while mr. Strauss had a small smile on his lips.

“Don't be scared, make your move.” he said. Niko and Eva observed the game to see the situation and he looked at her.

“Things are not good there for Lara.”

“Daddy is an excellent chess player. Hey father, go easy on her, she's not that experienced.”

“But I'm going easy...” he protested.

 _"Yeah, right.”_ she thought. She went to the kitchen to fix something for her father to eat and to order their pizza.

“Are you gonna order some pizza??” her father asked. Eva gave him a sharp look for a few seconds and mr. Strauss signed exasperated. “Blah blah, the doctor said I can't.” Eva kept looking at him sharply.

“Don't complain. You're lucky you are here healthy and alive.” she said, her voice a bit cold. How could he be this damn stubborn?

“Women from her family are like that... when they give you this look, run to the hills.” Eva heard her father saying to Niko.

"But she's right, you know? You have to take care of yourself.” Niko said.

She let Niko trying to convince her father she wasn't wrong and went to order their pizza. Eva didn't notice Lara had followed her to the kitchen and was standing behind her.

“I like pepperoni pizza.” Lara said.

“Then I'll order pepperoni pizza!” Eva answered. “Only this one or do you like other flavours?”

“Pepperoni is my favorite... but daddy doesn't like it.”

“Who cares, huh? We order something else for him and your pepperoni pizza.” Lara smiled.

“Did dad tell you he's going to be in Russia next week?”

“Yeah, he did. What do you think about staying with me? If you don't want it, you can stay with your mother. I won't have a problem with that.”

“It's all fine, Eva.” Lara answered. “I just wished my father didn't travel that much, you know? He's always in Croatia or going somewhere. I want him here with me more.”

Eva smiled sadly and caressed her shoulder.

“I'm going to talk to him, okay?”

“He doesn't need to be here the whole time, just a little bit more. I'm spending more time with my stepdad than with my own dad.”

“I understand you.” Eva passed her whole arm on her shoulders. “I'm not your mother and I don't intend to steal her spot, but I'm here if you wanna talk about anything that bothers you.”

“Thanks.” Lara gave her a small grin. “Shall we ask for the pizzas?”

“Sure! You choose.” Eva handed the phone to her and went to fix something healthy for her father to eat.

The small talk with Lara got Eva thinking: Niko had a lot of good qualities but it kinda shocked her to know that “an amazing father” was not exactly one of them. She could see Niko was trying his best but it wasn't enough. She was lost in her thoughts when Lara came by her side.

“It's all done. I ordered pepperoni and 4-cheese.”

“Great! Erm...” Eva started. Lara gave her a reassuring look. “Have you talked to your father about what you told me?”

“No, I haven't. I don't wanna sound selfish because I know he has his job and it's important to him but he's important to me.”

“You don't have to explain yourself, Lara, your complaints are not selfish. And your mother, have you talked to her?” Eva was a bit concerned if Katarina knew and how would that affect her relationship with Niko, because that would also affect his relationship with Lara.

“I haven't either. I'm kinda suffering alone here.”

“We.. You should talk about that, you and your father. Don't hide those things from him.”

“Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry, I'm feeling ashamed, we don't even have this much of... intimacy.”

“Don't worry, Lara.”

“What are you two talking about?” Lara and Eva almost died of heart attack when they suddenly heard his voice on the kitchen.

“Errr....” Lara didn't know what to say so Eva stood up for her.

“We were talking about the fact that you hate pepperoni pizza which is unforgivable.”

Niko made an ugly face and Lara took that oportunity to leave the kitchen and get back to the living room, leaving Eva and Niko alone again.

“We'll talk about that when you get back from Russia...” Eva said. Niko agreed with his head, getting back to the living room too.

By the time the pizza arrived and they started to watch the movie, Eva was already sleepy, so she leaned her head on Niko's shoulder and dozed off. The last thing she remembered was Niko kissing her head and making her more comfortable in his arms.

She woke up the next day on her bed with the alarm ringing. She rubbed her eyes, trying to grab her phone. Once she turned the alarm off, she found a small handwritten note on the bedside table.

 

_You were really tired last night and I wouldn't dare waking you up. I carried you all the way from the living room to the bedroom and you didn't even move._

_Tonight Lara and I are going out together, we have this thing of spending one day together, just the two of us, so I hope you don't mind if tonight we don't see each other._

_Yours, Niko._

After reading the note and taking a bath, she typed a message to him on her phone.

_"No problem, Niko. I'm going to use my time to build the case I have. Have a great time with Lara, she really needs it.”_

Eva got dressed and had her breakfast alone and quietly, only disturbed by the sound of her phone telling her she had a new message.

_“I think you should take a night for yourself, don't you think?”_

_“Nah, I gotta do this work before it gets too late.”_

_"Well, ok, but don't lose your sleep because of this, please.”_

_"I won't :)”_

The day went normal as usual and she spent most of her night working until she was satisfied with the case she had.

Before going to bed, she decided to check on her facebook account. She noticed she had a message on her inbox from David.

 

_Hey Eva! How is it going?_

_I met Audrey yesterday and she told me you moved back to Germany this year. You didn't tell me and I was wondering why! I miss you a lot._

_Peter is growing up so fast! I can't believe he's almost 8 years old! He asks a lot for his auntie Eva, so I hope you can visit us someday soon._

_Ah, Sarah and I are getting divorced. I tried my best to work out between us but we both know why I married her in the first place, so... It didn't work._

_Send me some news, okay?_

Well, Eva didn't know what to think of this, honestly. Should she answer him? Should she just ignore it? She fumbled a little her phone before she started typing her answer.

 

_Hey David! I'm great, thanks. I moved back to Germany because my father was sick and I had to take care of him._

_I miss Peter so much! Tell him I may be visiting him on christmas this year but no promises. And I'm sorry for the divorce, I've always wished you two the best so it's sad to hear it._

Eva read the answer a thousand times and thought she sounded a bit cold. Whatever, she knew where this was going to. They were friends but not _like that._

“I'm always everybody's second choice anyway.” she mumbled to herself before getting to bed.


	11. Ten

Eva was stretching her arms while sat in bed next to Niko, who was checking his phone. Her shoulders were hurting and she was feeling strangely tired. They had just finished packing his suit and a few stuffs to spend his next day in Russia, and while they were doing that, Eva couldn’t stop thinking about the last message David sent her: _“I really really miss you and I’d love to hear your voice again. Can I call you sometime?”_. She didn’t know if she should tell Niko that or just let it be.  
“I talked to Katarina and Lara…” Niko began talking and Eva looked at him. “…and I think we are going to NY this Christmas!”  
“Ahh, great!” Eva exclaimed. Well, now she would have to tell him about David since she was going to visit the guy’s son, so it’s better to talk about this before they even put their feet in USA. “I gotta tell you something.”  
“Shoot.”  
“Remember I told you about that ex-boyfriend who married another woman?”  
“The idiot who trade you for another woman?”  
“Yeah, him.”  
“What’s the matter?”  
“He contacted me on facebook.” As soon as Eva said that, Niko’s expression changed completely. He became serious, his eyebrows arched. “And”, Eva continued. “You know, I’ve got a good relationship with his son, Peter, in fact I’m his godmother.”  
“So it means you’re going to his house when we go to New York.” Niko completed her whole speech for her.   
“Yes, exactly.” She answered expectantly.  
“And you want me to be okay with that?”  
“It would be good, you know.”  
“But I’m not.” Niko said dryly. “I know this guy only talked to you because he’s probably single and wants you.”  
“Look, he’s single indeed. His marriage didn’t work out and yes, I know he contacted me only because he sees an opportunity right now. However, let’s just remember I’m in love with you?”  
“I knew it! I told you he didn’t marry for love but for convenience, now he’s thinking maybe he has a chance with you.”  
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks, Niko, I’m only going to visit my godson.”  
“It matters to me.”  
Eva looked at him in disbelief. “Are you playing the jealous boyfriend? I don’t remember you being jealous.”  
“I am jealous and I’m not comfortable with this situation.”  
“Come on Niko, I’m the first one to be bothered by the whole thing! I’m always everybody’s second choice when their first doesn’t work out!”  
“Are you referring to me as well?” Niko raised his voice a little.  
“Niko, if you raise your voice again…” Eva had a steady voice. “I’m going to murder you. Yes, I’m referring to everybody who has ever had the chance to date me.”  
“You know what you are saying is completely bullshit, don’t you?!”  
“Oh yeah? Prove me wrong.”  
“I didn’t run after you, Eva. It happened again when I was single but I’ve been single for 2 years. If you were my ‘second choice’, I would have run after you in USA to win your heart but noooo, I didn’t. Gosh, sometimes you say some things about yourself that are awful.”  
Eva lost the argument, she knew it. As much as she wanted to keep arguing, she decided to stay quiet and remained like that while Niko looked at her, questioningly.   
“Now you won’t say a thing, huh?” Niko dared her but she remained silent since she couldn’t defend herself. “I keep my opinion: I’m jealous and I don’t want you near that guy… but it’s your choice, your godson.”  
“Will you be angry with me if I go and see my godson? Come on, it’s a child.” She pleaded.  
“I’m not going to get angry with you but I’m not going to be happy about it. I’m not your boss or your owner, Eva but I do feel uncomfortable about it, so the only thing I can do is understand you.”  
“I’m not used to see you this jealous.” Eva crawled to him and kissed his lips. “I thought you knew how much I’m crazy about you.”  
“Of course I’m jealous.” Niko grabbed her waist and kissed her back, biting her lower lip. “I swear if I meet him, I’m going to kiss you very hard in front of him so he can see what he lost.”  
“Wow, I kinda like you jealous.” Eva whispered against his lips and kissed him again. “And I like kissing you so you can kiss me in front of David anytime.”   
“Ok, so I’ll do it then.” Niko chuckled and kissed her cheek. “I have to sleep, come here lay down with me.” Eva snuggled on his arms and pulled the blankets to cover them.  
“I could spend a lifetime with you like this.” Niko whispered looking directly in her eyes. “Kissing you…” Niko caressed her hair slowly. “Hugging you…” He kissed the top of her head, smelling her hair. Then, much to Niko’s disappointment, Eva’s phone started to ring.  
“Wait a second…” she whispered.  
“Ahhh come on, let it ring. It’s Sunday night!” he protested, holding her by the hand.  
“Let me see who it is…” Eva checked the phone’s screen and it was her boss. “It’s my boss, Niko.”  
“Let it ring, please…” he pleaded one last time but Eva ignored him, answering the phone.   
“Good night, sir.” Niko huffed and turned to the other side. “Yeah, I’m free to talk.”  
At the end of her conversation with her boss, Eva breathed heavily in frustration: he wanted her at the office very early in the morning to give her reports on her research about the case. He had made her stay until late on Friday and he called her too on Saturday, now he was calling her on a Sunday night.   
“Niko…” Eva called him.  
“I’m not going to interfere with how you work but don’t you think Sunday is that day to at least rest a bit?” he turned around to face her again.  
“Ah, Niko… You see, I’m not an actual lawyer here in Germany.”  
“I don’t understand.” He asked, his forehead furrowed.   
“I’m an international lawyer here, I do help building the cases when it’s something concerning US law but I didn’t take the state’s exam. I was working with business contracts before and it was a lot easier and less work but I guess my boss had other plans.”  
“Can’t you just ask him to have your weekends off?”  
“It’s not that easy… I feel like…. I don’t know how to say it but I feel like I’m treated less, you know? Because I’m not a German trained lawyer. So I don’t even have the courage to contest anything, let alone ask to work less. The only thing I asked was a salary increase and it was partially granted.”  
“I understand. Do you feel happy with your work?”  
“Honestly? No.” Eva shrugged uncomfortably. Niko caressed her arm, encouraging her to talk. “Ah, I don’t want to spill all over you my problems concerning my choices.”  
“If you don’t talk to me, who are you going to talk to, then?”  
Eva breathed heavily.  
“I thought that… I thought that it would be less hard here. I have a master’s degree in German Law and in Human Rights, I thought that maybe I would have a chance to have a good job but I ended up working in the same shit that almost got me killed, working for more hours and getting paid less. If I think I should have stayed in US? Yes, I do. I worked at Wall Street, Niko. I was getting filthy rich but things were getting out of control in my personal life.” Eva started to feel a tear appearing on the corner of her eyes. “I sound confusing, don’t I?”  
“Why don’t you go from the beginning, huh? Tell me everything that bothers you.”  
“Ok… Ahhh” she started searching her memory for the exact point where shit started to happen to her. “I’ve been always a bit of a workaholic but when I got my position at the Barnes & Anderson Office, I would literally spend nights and nights there working. I was extremely competitive and I was great, to be honest. As of result, I ended up becoming one of their associates and that made get into Manhattan’s high society and all of that. I knew something was starting to happen to me… psychologically, but I just refrained and kept going until I was attacked. Suddenly everything started to fall down on my shoulders. I was diagnosed with PTSD and GAD, you know, the generalized anxiety disorder. I’m sorry, I don’t know why…”  
“Keep going, love. I wanna hear.” Niko said.  
“Uhhh, I did some therapy and I was feeling a little better. That’s was when I decided to come back to Germany, do something else, take care of myself a bit but it took me a year to actually do it and it was after my father felt sick. So here I am, unsatisfied with my current job and feeling like I am about to lose control again.” Eva was feeling slightly ashamed and uncomfortable for opening up to him like that. She felt exposed and fragile for a minute before Niko hugged her tightly. It was so unexpected that she didn’t have a proper reaction and after a few seconds she hugged him back.   
“You can always count on me to talk about your problems. What I think you should do is: take your time to think about what makes you happy. I’m here to support you if you decide to quit your job and look for something else, really. If you want to move to Croatia or anywhere else, work with something else… There’s no problem. I’ll support you no matter what you choose and I know we’ll both make it work.”  
Now it was Eva’s turn to hug him tightly, kissing his cheek. Niko kissed her cheek as well and cuddled her. The natural smell of him – of Niko –, his warmness and his soothing words made her calm and comfortable enough to sleep peacefully that night. When she woke up on the next day, she was disappointed to find the space beside her empty. She rubbed her eyes and checked her watch: _6 am_. She got up and went to Lara’s bedroom to wake her up, who was shrunken under her sheets.   
“Good morning.” Eva murmured to Lara, who blinked a few times and tried to sleep again. “No, no, you have to go to school.”  
“Can I stay, please? I won’t tell dad.” She begged.  
“You know I can’t do that, honey. Come on, I can make some pancakes!” Eva tried to cheer her up and it worked a bit.  
Eva went downstairs to make them some pancakes and while she was cooking, she caught herself thinking about David. She couldn’t just lie to herself saying that he didn’t bother her in some way and that she didn’t feel hurt about whatever happened between them. Yes, she accepted letting him go to take care of his son. Yes, it was a dumb move. No, she didn’t want him back. But it kinda hurt her in the wrong way: Niko was right, he was only talking to her because his marriage was over. A second choice, someone to run when nothing else worked.   
“Are you going to let it burn?” Eva heard Lara’s voice and snapped back to reality. She turned off the stove quickly.   
“I’m sorry, I was distracted.” Eva apologized.   
“No problem, let me help you?” Lara offered.  
“There’s no need. Are your stuff in order for school?”  
“Yes, I only need to have breakfast and get dressed.”  
When Lara was ready, Eva took her to school and went to the office. The day was boring and she almost prayed for it to end so she could spend time with Lara. Eva had planned to take her to play bowling.  
“So, let me ask you this…” Lara started saying while they were entering the bowling center. “You and my father dated when you two were in your twenties.”  
“”Umm, yup.” Eva agreed.  
“He never mentioned your name…” Lara threw the ball, hitting three pins.  
“Of course he didn’t…” Eva started, throwing the ball. “He was married to your mother. It would sound strange to even mention my name next to her.”   
“Yeah, you’re right…” Lara assented.   
“Speaking of which, how was it to you?” The divorce.” Eva watched Lara throw the ball for the second time, missing the pins. _Hmm, she got lucky on the first time_ , Eva thought to herself.  
“It’s a bit difficult. I know something strange was happening to them, I just didn’t know exactly what. I still can’t understand what happened.”  
“Well, sometimes things go wrong and it’s better to end it before everything gets worse. Relationships are quite difficult, ya know. I saw my mom and dad getting divorced when I was 22 years old and I only understood it years later. You can love someone very much but it’s not enough to sustain a life together. I’m sure your father loved your mother very much.”  
“That doesn’t bother you?”  
“What?”  
“The years my father spent with my mom.”  
Eva grabbed one of the balls, a dark green one, and threw it, hitting all of the pins. _Strike!_ She hadn’t thought about it, to be honest. She wasn’t particularly threatened by Katarina, not at all, especially since they weren’t together anymore had 2 years.  
“No, it doesn’t. His past doesn’t bother me and if he hadn’t fell in love with your mother, you wouldn’t be here with me today.” Lara smiled and threw another ball, hitting one pin.  
“My father told me about you when I came back from vacation. He was happy and saying how much he wanted us to meet. Of course, I thought I was going to hate you.”  
“But you didn’t. Or you did and you’re planning to kill me?”  
“I didn’t.” Lara answered, laughing softly.  
“I don’t want and I don’t intend to replace your mother. She’s the one who gave birth to you and I don’t even want to pretend I’m like her, but I want to be someone you like and that you’re comfortable with. I thought it was too early to meet you but…”  
“I think it was ok to meet you that day. My father has never had a girlfriend since he and my mom split so this is the first time we have someone with us. I like it.”  
Eva smiled, heart-warmed. She stayed quiet a moment, holding her ball and aiming where she was going to throw.  
“So, how about you?” She cleared her throat. “Do you have any boyfriend at school?”  
Lara immediately became shy and her cheeks turned red.  
“Umm, there is a boy…” she began. “We just kissed once, you know, but he’s so cute!” Eva smiled at Lara’s enthusiasm.  
“Is he from your classroom?”  
“No, he’s a little bit older.”  
“Does your father know about him?”  
“No!” Lara answered, panicking. “Daddy can’t know about it, ahhh.”  
“And why is that? He doesn’t approve?”  
“Dad says I’ll only be able to date anyone when I turn 30 years old.”  
“Nonsense!” Eva laughed. “My father used to say the exact same thing to me but when I started dating your father around my 20s, he loved the idea.”  
“Nah, I bet my father will honor his words, I’m his only child and he’s kinda jealous.”  
“I’m sure when you get to a certain age, your dad won’t be able to stop you from dating. Relax, all fathers say that.”  
Eva and Lara spent the rest of the night playing bowling and eating hot dogs. Being there with Lara, having a good night playing bowling like she used to do in NY made her anxious to take her and Niko to her favorite restaurants in NY, to where she used to have fun.   
They arrived home and Lara gave her a good night hug. Eva slept alone on that big bed and felt a little bit sad for not having Niko there sleeping with her.  
————————-

In the beginning of the week of Niko’s birthday, Eva was worried about what she was going to do for him. Take him out for dinner? Buy something nice? Throw a surprise party? She had been so much time away from him that she didn’t know anymore what he liked and what he didn’t. Then she decided to call Robert and see if he had any ideas but the call went to voicemail.   
“Shit.” Eva whispered when she heard a woman’s voice telling her to leave a message. “What am I going to do??”  
By midday, she went to have lunch still without any good ideas of what would please Niko. She couldn’t remember if he liked surprise parties and Robert wouldn’t answer his phone.  
“What is bothering you so much?” Paula was looking at her questioningly across the table.  
“Niko’s birthday. I don’t know what I’m going to do for him…” Eva complained.  
“You could make him a surprise in bed…” Paula winked and Eva snorted feeling a tad ashamed.  
“I don’t need a special date to do something special.” Eva joked remembering the night before.

> _“Fuck.” Niko moaned, squeezing her butt. “You look damn sexy in those stockings.”_
> 
> _“That’s what you like?” she teased. In return, she received a hard spank on the left side of her butt. “Ah god.”, she moaned in pleasure, feeling her skin burning._

Eva coughed and smiled ashamed. Paula gave her a surprised look and changed the tone of the conversation.  
“You could maybe buy him a nice present and cook dinner, something he loves?” she suggested.  
Eva stopped to think for a minute that it was actually a good idea. She spent her lunch time thinking the dishes she knew he liked and what type of present could she give him but by the time the dawn arouse, she started to get desperate again. As if he prays were answered, her phone rang and Robert’s name appeared on the screen.  
 _“Hey Robbie!”  
“Hello Eva, how is everything going? I saw you called me but I’m sorry I couldn’t call you back earlier. I actually wanted to talk to you anyway so I’m glad you called.”  
“Please tell me we are going to talk about Niko’s birthday.”  
“Yes, we are. I’m planning a surprise party for him at Valy’s and of course I wanted you there.”  
“On Wednesday?”  
“Yeah… Is it bad for you?”_  
Eva was going to miss a day of work again and she knew it was getting too much. She was so fucking unhappy with her work that she was actually not diving a damn, so she told Robert it was okay for her and they decided that she would arrive early in Croatia to help them prepare everything.  
After Robert’s call, Eva went back to work and busied herself with her reports. She ended up losing track of time and only realized how late it was when she saw and upcoming call from Niko.  
 _“Hey, love.” She answered._  
“Are you still at work?” his voice sounded worried.  
“Yes, I was doing my reports and I just lost track of time.”  
“I was worried because you didn’t call or anything.”  
“I’m so sorry, Niko. What time is it?”  
“It’s nearly 11pm.”  
“Shit” Eva whispered.  
“Do you want me to pick you up?”  
“There’s no need, my car is here.”  
“Ok. Please, be careful and drive safely. I’ll be waiting for you.”  
Eva arrived at his house almost an hour later and Niko was still awake waiting for her with a hot cup of tea.  
“Oh my God, you should have gone to sleep.” She said as soon as he greeted her by the door. He gave her a warm kiss on the lips.  
“Now I can sleep since you’re safe. I was worried because it’s too late and dangerous.”  
“The building has security…”  
“Still… Here, a cup of tea to warm your body.” He gave her the cup while he gathered her suitcase. Eva took off her jacket and sat down at the couch. She sipped her tea and hummed in pleasure.  
“Are you like that after the marriage?” she joked.  
“Are you going to marry me?” Niko joked back and Eva snorted.  
“Perhaps.”  
“Then yes, I am like that after the marriage.”  
“You are just saying that to please me.”  
“Nope, ask Katarina. I like to be a good husband especially now that the woman I wish to take as my wife is a devoted lawyer.”  
Eva laughed and playfully punched his chest. Niko grabbed her hand softly and held her gaze so intensely she blushed. They kept looking at each other without breaking the contact for at least one minute until Niko smiled a bit.  
“Relax, Eva. I’m not going to ask you to marry me today.” Eva laughed and took another sip of her tea.  
“I’m not scared of marrying you.”  
“I know you’re not.” Niko caressed her arm gently. “Shall we get to sleep?”  
Eva finished her tea and they both went to sleep. Niko adjusted her to his body so he was comfortably spooning her. It didn’t take her too long to drift off. Before she fell completely asleep, she thought about possibly marrying Niko. The idea itself didn’t scare her at all but she was afraid of doing it too soon. She knew pretty well that if it wasn’t for her insecurity, he would have proposed it already because in his head, this was a continuation of their previous relationship.  
In her head, this was just a new beginning, hardly a continuation. She had changed very much and she was afraid that Niko had changed so much that maybe he wasn’t the same she had fallen in love before, or maybe that she had changed so much. She was willing to cope with his differences and his new habits or new ideas but not as a marriage. She also needed time to adjust to his qualities and defects (?) again before they thought about putting a ring in their fingers. Maybe Niko knew that and he was just paying to see where they would go or maybe he wasn’t noticing that. Either way, he decided to respect her and she was thankful for that.

—————————–  
On November 15th, Eva took the plane to Croatia in the early hours of the morning. She had told Niko she was going to work until late so that’s why she wasn’t able to be with him on his birthday and he got quite mad at her and left to Croatia one day before his birthday, so her plan was going pretty well. Robbie told her that he and Niko had planned to have a cozy dinner at Vally’s for his birthday and when Niko arrived, they would be there. Robbie also told her that Niko had called and said he was hurt because she wasn’t even caring about his birthday  
The plan was for her to arrive in Croatia and go straight to Robert’s house, so they could leave to the restaurant from there. Eva helped Robert pick up what kind of food they were going to serve, Niko’s favorite wine and his cake, which had a picture of his face – Robert’s idea – and she found it hilarious.  
Robert set the appointment for 7pm to the guests and 8pm to Niko, so they had plenty of time to arrange how they were going to surprise him. Between the guests, Eva saw someone she thought it was very familiar to her and approached carefully.  
“Bosko Balaban?” she asked to the man, who turned to her. He kept looking at her for a few seconds before his face lighted in a smile.  
“Eva Strauss?” he asked and she nodded. “Are you kidding me? Long time no see!” they hugged each other smiling.  
“Yes, it has been a long time indeed. How are you doing, Bosko?”  
“I’m great and you? God, time made you even more gorgeous!” he complimented.  
“Thank you.” She laughed. “I’m great as well.”  
“Are you and Niko…?”  
“Yes, exactly.” She grinned, confirming.  
“Well, that’s what I call destiny, huh? He was always very crazy about you, y’know. Always talking about you.”  
“I’ve heard things haven’t changed nowadays.” She joked remembering what Davor had said to her.  
“He’s coming!” Robert interrupted them and grabbed Eva to stand beside him near the entrance. When Niko came into the restaurant, they all screamed “happy birthday!” together. He put his hand on his face, laughing and nodding his head as if saying “unbelievable”. Niko looked at her smiling and whispered in her ear _“And I thought you weren’t giving a damn… thank you.”_  
She smiled back and whispered to him _“It was Robert’s idea… but I was going to do something for you too.”_. Niko kissed her mouth and heard people cheering them, and immediately Eva became shy, hiding her face on his shoulder.  
“Robbie, Robbie.” Niko said, separating from Eva’s embrace. “Always my beloved baby brother.” And he gave him a kiss on the cheek followed by a tight hug. Eva absolutely loved the way they were close and how much they loved each other.  
Niko went on to greet everyone at the party while Eva started eating finger foods and getting a glass of wine. The party was going very well until she heard a woman’s voice talking to the receptionist.  
“My name is Cecilia, I came for Niko Kovac.” Eva heard the woman saying and felt her blood getting hot. She noticed Niko saw Cecilia and was serious heading towards her but Eva was faster and grabbed Niko’s arm.  
“Let me talk to her, Niko.” Eva said. Cecilia looked at them and shouted.  
“Ahhh Niko, my love!” Was she drunk? She sounded drunk.  
“I’ll talk to her.” Niko said and tried to get away but Eva gripped his arm even harder.  
“No, I’ll do it.” And she walked towards Cecilia, who was looking questioningly at Niko stand there looking livid. He was beyond pissed, he was fucking angry at Cecilia for not respecting him and his relationship. For not respecting Eva. And then he was angry because he knew Eva was playing cool so she wouldn’t show how much that made her pissed. Niko was just praying that his night didn’t end in a fight.


	12. Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Any mistakes are entirely my fault! :)

“What do you want?” Cecilia asked as soon as they got outside of the restaurant.

“I should ask you that, Cecilia.” Eva replied. “Are you here to cause trouble? Are you drunk?”

“I’m here because the man I’m in love with is inside and it doesn’t fucking matter if I’m drunk or not!” Cecilia started to raise her voice.

“It does fucking matter. It’s his party, you weren’t invited and I’m done with you.” Eva said, her blood boiling completely.

“ _I’m_ done with you! Who are you to steal him from me? I came here first!”

Eva snorted, nodding her head.

“I didn’t steal him from you, I met him when you were a little child! He used to be my boyfriend so I guess I came first.”

“I’m really surprised Niko prefers you over me.” Cecilia mocked and Eva snorted again, controlling her crescent anger. “I mean, really, look at me. Plus, I’m younger.”

“Well,” Eva began breathing deeply. “I find you really gorgeous indeed but I’m sorry to say that I really believe in my sex appeal and my personality. Niko choose me and I’m not going to fight with you because of that, really.”

“I’m not going to stop until he personally says he doesn’t want me.”

“Then I suggest you to stop.” Niko said and they both turned to see him standing there, hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry if I ever gave you the wrong impression, I’m usually very affectionate but I remember clearly telling you we had a casual relationship.”

“But I fell in love! I thought you could change your mind.” Cecilia’s face was sad and she was about to cry. Eva really felt pity for her.

“And I did but I didn’t want it to be with you. I’m so sorry Cecilia, really. I just don’t accept you saying those things to Eva.”

“How could you trade me for her?” Cecilia pointed to her body. Eva rolled her eyes and turned around so she could resist the urge to punch the girl. _Relax Eva, it’s not right to fight with a woman because of a man._

“Cecilia, I’m in love with Eva.” Niko said simply and Eva turned again, this time looking straight at Cecilia.

“You are gorgeous and you’re going to find a man better than Niko. It’s not worthy to humiliate yourself because of a man.” Eva said truthfully. “I’m in love with him and I think he’s amazing but I don’t like the idea of a woman humiliating herself for him. Have some self-respect, some self-love.”

This time, Cecilia was really crying and nodding. She didn’t say a word after that and just left their company. Eva breathed heavily and looked at Niko, who was half relieved, half pissed. She wanted to cry as well. She felt self-conscious, felt as if her body was horrible and felt old for the first time in a while. They shared the silence for a while before Niko broke it.

“Eva, I…” he started but she raised a finger to shush him.

“We’ll talk about it when we arrived at your house.” Eva was fighting back the tears and Niko knew that because he looked apologetically at her.

“You’re…” He began saying but Eva nodded.

“I said we’ll talk about this at home…” Eva said once more, this time there was a tear rolling down her cheek. She didn’t want to hear it, she just wanted to enjoy – or try – the rest of the night.

“Okay.” Niko said, giving up the argument. Only for now.

They entered the restaurant again and spent most of the time apart chatting to other people and enjoying the meal the buffet served. The only time they were together was when it was brought Niko’s birthday cake with his photo on it. It was impossible not to laugh but even that was difficult to Eva. And Niko knew it.

He showed his photo on top of the cake to her and made a silly face. She giggled softly. Niko then cut his cake and gave her a slice.

“There’s a part of my face in it.” He said, laughing. “I never thought I would give you a part of my face to eat.”

Eva couldn’t help but laugh at his joke.

“And I never thought I would eat a part of your face.” Eva joked back and took a bite of the cake. That made her a little bit less grumpy but she was still pissed and hurt.

 

* * *

 

As soon as Eva got into Niko’s house, she went straight to the bath. She let the hot water run across her hair, then her back and her butt. For seconds, she was lost in thought when the image of tonight’s events came into her mind. Eva made an enormous effort to not cry but it was impossible, so she broke into tears.

She heard Niko knocking the door and remained quiet, as if she hadn’t heard him knocking. She just wanted to be left alone to sulk and cry, and maybe later feel like she could face whatever happened that night.

“Eva?” she heard his voice on the other side. He sounded so miserable. “Can I come in?”

She fought back a few tears before she could muster a proper answer. Eva didn’t want him to know she was crying.

“Erm, yes.” That was the only answer she could come up with.

Eva felt the cold air invade the room and braced herself against it. It didn’t last long enough since Niko sneaked quickly into the bathroom.

“Can I join you?” There was no hint of teasing in his voice or a subtle message in it. He was being genuine about only join in to take a bath. But Eva didn’t want him to see her red face.

“I’m already leaving.” She quickly finished her bath and curled up in the towel, leaving the stall and the bathroom without looking at him. He didn’t get the chance to reply before she was outside looking for her clothes.

Eva changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed before Niko left his bath. It would be better if she just went to sleep before he had the chance to properly talk to her. Tomorrow maybe she would be able to talk but tonight she wasn’t. She was already feeling ridiculous for the tears again pooling her eyes.

After a few minutes, Niko was in the bedroom again and Eva felt the weight of his body next to her in the bed. “I know you’re avoiding me.” He whispered.

“I’m not, Niko.” She answered simply.

“We need to talk.” Eva shifted uncomfortably but didn’t turn around to face him.

“I don’t want to.” She answered stubbornly.

“But we need. I’m sorry for all the things Cecilia said to you and if I could, I’d have never allowed her to ever try to hurt you.” He confessed, his voice barely a whisper.

That could have made Eva feel relaxed and willing to forget all about what happened but her blood boiled. That made her even angrier. She turned around to look at him.

“Are you fucking serious?” She sat down next to him, incredulous. “You had the motherfucking opportunity to talk to her way back when she kissed you at the airport. But nooo, you didn’t, did you? You just let that shit go.”

Niko had sat down as well, his eyebrows raised in surprise. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and Eva fought the urge to punch him in the face. “What? You think I’m wrong??” she asked angrily.

“Damn wrong. I didn’t think she was going to come back! I thought I had made myself clear when I said you were my girlfriend!” he tried to argue but Eva was having none of that.

“How comfortable. You could just have told her you weren’t interested, huh? Would that be too hard? No, it wouldn’t. I guess it’s pleasant for you, isn’t it? Having two women fighting for you. I bet you thought you were the shit when you started going out with her, after all, such a young model like her would be a great sugar baby for you, wouldn’t she? That’s why you can’t just say to her you aren’t interested? It would end your chances with her once you’re over with me. Why would you still be with me, right? I’m just older and I’m not up to your current status, am I? You put me over there to do your fucking dirty work with her and I’m not doing it anymore, Niko. I’m not here to mark a fucking territory or fight over for a man, I’m here to be desired and cared. Fuck.” She spit everything out, her heart beating so hard in her chest that it felt like a drum.

Niko looked so hurt that for a second Eva considered that she had done the wrong thing. He opened his mouth a few times and nothing came out of it. He finally swallowed and when he spoke, his voice was weak and his eyes filled with tears.

“Is that what you think about me? You think I’m looking for a woman to have as my trophy? That I will get rid of you once the time is right? Goddammit Eva, I thought you were more clever than that or knew me better. I’m hurt that you even think that I did all of this shit on purpose.”

“What about me? I was mocked because I’m not as young as I used to be and it was implied that I wasn’t worthy. It hurts, you know?” She began crying again and cursed herself for being weak like this. It didn’t matter, did it? She was already hurt. “I’m not as… confident as I used to be, I have my freckles and I have some white hair starting to grow in my head. My tits are not firm as they used to be and I’m just aging. It feels so fucking terrible to me and it doesn’t help that a young babe reminded me of that. Worse, reminded me that you’re far more handsome now that you’re older and that you can have any woman you want.”

“The only woman I want is standing right in front of me, with her freckles and some white hair in her head, her tits glorious as always. But if she thinks they need fixing, I’ll pay for her to make them look perfect as she wants. Eva, look at me.” His hands reached for her arms and turned her to face him completely. “I’m a prick and a fool, and I’m sorry for tonight. It hurts me to know you have these things in your mind when I can only think is how lucky I am to even have a chance with you again. You are right, I should have handled this and I’m going to do it tomorrow. I don’t want you to ever doubt of my feelings and how much you attract me. If there’s anything else you want me do to for you, please, I want to know.” He was pleading.

“I just want us to live without these kinds of dramas. I deserve that from life, from you.” Eva answered in a whisper, her anger dissipating.

“Your wish is an order, Eva.” Niko pulled her into a tight embrace, his fingers tangling in her hair, his nose buried in her neck smelling her scent. She hugged him back, clinging to his torso as if it was lifesaving. They stayed hugged for minutes until their hearts became calm, beating in a steady pace as if they were only one, until their breathing wasn’t heavy anymore, until Niko was sure that her perfume was all over him, until Eva was relaxed in his embrace.

They slowly adjusted themselves in bed cuddling. Niko kissed her neck slowly, almost lazily, and his free hand worked his wonders on her arm. His caresses were very good but Eva wasn’t going to give in yet.

“I’m not in the mood.” She whispered as his hand started to sneak inside her shirt. Niko immediately retrieved his hand and kissed her shoulder in apology.

“Alright.” He whispered against her skin. Niko kept spooning her until he listened to her heavy breath indicating she was asleep.

 

* * *

 

Eva woke up in the next morning with Niko’s soothing voice in her ear. “Love, wake up. It’s almost 10 am, I set up a meeting with Cecilia and I’m going to end our problems once and for all. Do you wanna come?”

It took a while for her to register his words on her mind. It seemed like her words last night hit him harder than she thought. She trusted him to handle this by himself and without cheating on her. That wasn’t the kind of man he was.

“No, there’s no need.” She replied, rubbing her eyes.

“Are you sure?” He insisted.

“Of course I am sure, I trust you.” Eva reassured him by kissing his hand lightly. Niko kissed her forehead in return and left the bedroom.

She tried to get back to sleep but to be fair, her mind couldn’t stop wondering what was Niko going to tell Cecilia and how long would that take. She should have gone with him in the end and hear his exact words to Cecilia. _I’ll have to settle down with his version._ , she thought to herself before grabbing her phone to distract a little bit. _10:15._ Eva marked the time to know how long it would take for him to come back.

 

\----------

Eva had gone from the bedroom to the kitchen to fix something to eat when the front door opened and Niko stepped in. _11:15._ She looked at the clock and sighed in relief to know he had handled everything quickly. The way she looked at the clock didn’t go unnoticed by him and he furrowed his eyebrows before hugging her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“I would never cheat on you.” Niko whispered and kissed her neck. Eva moaned lowly at the feel of his lips on her skin, so smooth and hot, and he turned her around to face him, his eyes hungry for her, begging for her forgiveness. “You apparently have no idea the kind of effect you have on me.”

“Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.” She confessed.

“I chose to be with you, Eva. If you hadn’t come back into my life, I would have stayed single so no, I wasn’t looking for a sugar baby. I wasn’t looking for someone at all but then, you appeared and look where we are.” Niko was still holding her with such an intense stare that she felt stripped. Not that she was complaining.

“I desire you, my sweet Eva.” And with that, Niko finally captured her lips with his own, his hands sneaking inside of her shirt to grab her breasts, slowly flicking his thumb over her nipples while his tongue persistently tried to gain control over her mouth. “There’s not a single part of your body that I don’t want to put my mouth on.” He whispered on her lips, barely kissing her.

Eva moaned and writhed against his body, feeling how hard his cock was inside of his trousers. She wasn’t going to touch him, though. This was about him giving her pleasure and she was going to enjoy every single part of it. She noticed his mouth had gone from her lips to the base of her neck and that his hands were travelling south after leaving her nipples hard.

He reached for the base of her pants and let one of his hands go inside, finding exactly where she was aching the most. Eva held herself against the kitchen counter when his fingers touched her sensitive nub and slid into her wetness. Niko used his free hand to grab her chin and turn her face to him.

“You like when I’m devoted to you, don’t you?” He asked, pushing one finger inside of her while his thumb massaged her clit. Eva couldn’t muster an answer right now, so distracted by the way his fingers where working on her wetness.

Niko pushed a second finger inside of her and tightened his grip on her chin. “Answer to me.”

“Y-yes.” This was everything Eva could come up with right now. Her hands were griping him so hard that her knuckles were becoming white.

“Oh yeah?” She heard him whisper again, this time not so close to her ear. “You get this wet by the thought of me being so in love with you?”

Eva only nodded, incapable of coming up with an answer that wasn’t a strangled moan. Everything was too much and suddenly, his hands were out of her pants. “Wait, what?” She asked in confusion.

“I need to taste you.” Niko explained, his hands on her waist again pushing her towards the living room. He guided her to his large sofa and started to strip her, going first for her shirt, then for her pants and her underwear. This wasn’t a slow and sexy sex, this was desperate, as if Niko couldn’t wait to possess her, and she very much liked to see him losing control, giving pleasure in a harsh way. His mouth reached her nipple, sucking urgently while his hand was again on her sex, slowly sliding up and down.

“Niko…” Eva moaned, incapable of being coherent. Niko changed his attention to her other nipple and moaned back against her skin when he listened to his name on her lips. He didn’t take long on them, sliding down until he reached her pussy, but kissing her thighs instead of going directly to her aching clit. This was all too much for Eva and she was writhing in the bed but he held her in place, spreading her legs.

At first, he just breathed into her cunt and that was enough to make her whimper. He lifted his head and looked at her, biting his mouth.

“Is this what you want?” Niko rubbed her with his index finger and she threw her head back. “I’m only saying this once, Eva, and I want you to pay close attention. Do you hear me?”

“Yes.” She managed to answer.

“There’s just one pussy I want and it’s right in front of me.” He licked his lips. “I wanna lick you until you have nothing else left and after that, I’m gonna claim you. I’m not making love to you today… Maybe later, but right now I’m going to fuck you. If I can’t convince you through romance how much you affect me, I’m going to show you through a good fuck.”

Eva trembled: without a doubt this was the Niko she wanted to have more often. She wanted him to fuck her until he couldn’t handle anymore. Eva felt a bit courageous and lifted her body enough to level her eyes with Niko.

“Then I’m giving you a present…” She pulled Niko against her and whispered on his ear. “I’m already using IUD so I bet you’ll be pleased to fuck me while feeling me properly. Is that what you’ve been waiting for? To feel my pussy around your cock?”

Eva heard Niko whispering “ _shit_ ” while she laid down again. She took a moment to appreciate the man in front of her: if he was aroused before, now she knew for sure he was going to lose control again. His lips were swollen and moistened, and he seemed to be analyzing what he was going to do to her because his eyes were roaming her naked body.

“You know you’re a damn sexy woman, don’t you?” his hands caressed her thighs sensually. “I’m a very lucky man.” Niko resumed his kissing on her thighs and slide his tongue until he was at her cunt, licking her lightly.

Eva hissed at the feeling of his tongue touching her most sensitive part, licking and kissing. Oh boy, he was _fucking good._ He knew exactly where to suck, where to apply more pressure, where to ease the pressure and just go slowly, lightly. He didn’t used to be _that_ good but practice can lead you to perfection and although she was a bit jealous, she was more pleased that he was using his skills on her.

Niko inserted two fingers at once and Eva swore, her body reacting to the sudden intrusion. Her muscles contracted around his fingers and he pushed forward, thrusting slowly. She started moving with the rhythm of his thrusting, her arousal soaking his fingers and his hand. His mouth kept its pace on her clit, sucking hard enough to make her whine with pleasure. Eva could almost grab her climax, she was so damn close it hurt.

“Fuck!” Eva moaned, griping his shoulders. “Make me come, Niko. I need it!” She let go off his shoulders and laid down again, her body moving without her even realizing.

Niko chuckled against her delicate nub and the vibration almost sent her off. _Almost_. That was killing her and he knew it, he was _enjoying it_. Then Niko removed his mouth from her pussy and she protested but he held her in place before she could move. One of his hands went back to her cunt and kept stroking her lightly.

“You want to come? You’ll have to _beg_.” He teased and Eva couldn’t help but groan in frustration.

“Ugh, I hate you.” She moaned and clenched her fists. She wanted to pull his hair to punish him for being such a _fucking_ tease. Niko chuckled at her and started to remove his hand from her wet pussy. “No!” She protested. “ _Please, mr. Kovac._ ”

“You just know how to tease me, huh?” This time Niko touched her vigorously, just the way he knew she was going to cum. His index finger found her clit and circulated it, making her almost scream. It didn’t take her long to cum, her body tensing before release hit her had enough to make her pant. He kept rubbing her through her climax, his mouth hanging open while he watched her convulse and take her to that blissful journey.

Niko started to take off his clothes and watched her try to catch her breath. God, the sight of him taking off his clothes, his muscles tensing each time he removed a piece, his cock hard against his boxer briefs, was just something breathtaking. She tried to touch his cock but he caught her hands midway and laid her down again. Eva raised her eyebrow questioningly.

“This is about making you feel worshipped. I want to claim you today and show you that I mean everything I said.” He lowered himself on her and kissed her lips slowly, sensually, pressing her against the couch. The tip of his cock brushed against her wet entrance and he groaned, looking down between them.

Niko took himself in his hand and slid up and down his manhood on her slicky folds, his pace steady and meant to make her even more prepared to take him in. He bit her neck and stifled a groan when he noticed she had gotten even wetter. Eva had started to move with him, trying to move her hips enough so he could enter her already but Niko was surprisingly contained, almost unaffected. She knew better though.

“Fuck me, Niko.” She whispered on his ear. “Go on, already. Take me, claim me. _I need you._ ” She then bit his earlobe. With a quick move, Niko angled his hips and thrust inside of her, making both of them gasp in pleasure.

“ _Fuck_.” Niko groaned against the skin of her shoulder, biting her hard enough to leave a mark. “So _damn_ tight.” He started moving, deep and hard, his movement eased by the slickness of her arousal.

Eva gripped his hair and pulled him for a bruising kiss, her tongue finding his and slowly teasing him into a game of dominance. Niko bit her lower lip and picked his pace, burying himself even deeper and fucking her hard. Eva pushed him up and placed one of her legs on his shoulder, changing completely the angle of his thrusts.

“You are going to be the death of me, Eva.” Niko hissed, one of his hands holding her thigh in place and the other one holding her hips to push her against him. “There’s nothing I adore more than fucking your sweet tight cunt. Especially now…” he trailed off and looked at where they were joining, his cock slicky with her fluids. This was so sexy and Eva felt her need to come slowly rising while he roughly fucked her.

Her hands grabbed his hand from her hips and moved to her sensitive nub, and he took the hint, rubbing her just the way she liked, eliciting a loud moan from her. Niko changed the angle again, standing more erect and his other hand on her leg found her nipple, pinching it. Eva pushed against him at the sensation his ministrations gave her, biting her lower lip.

“Niko…” She whispered sensually. “I want to come on your cock. Make me come.” She knew she had hit a nerve because he closed his eyes and screwed his face, holding her tightly while he slammed his hips against her. The sound of skin against skin, the way he moved inside of her, her wetness, the sounds of pleasure he made, the way his hands moved on her clit and on her nipple, all of that was too much for Eva and she gripped the edge of the couch while she reached her peak. Niko moaned at the feeling of her squeezing his cock while she rode out of her climax and couldn’t help but pick his pace, slamming himself hard against her. He fucked her fast enough to move the couch from one place to another and Eva _fucking loved_ that side of Niko.

He put both of her legs on his shoulders, putting a bit of his weight on the back of her thighs, going deeper. Eva’s eyes widened at the new sensation, the way she could feel him fill her in a way she didn’t think she need it. Oh boy, but how she needed it. She felt whole and desired while he was buried deep in her.

Eva stared at him while he kept his pace, chasing his own release, a release she wanted so much to see, to feel. She squeezed his cock with her cunt and watched as he started to find his own climax, his mouth hanging open while his eyes obsessively held her gaze. He shot his hot seed inside of her and she held him tightly, taking in all of his pleasure. Niko was reduced to a spasming, sweaty body, his eyes shut.

After his body calmed down and his cock softened, Eva wrapped her legs around him, caressing his sweaty hair, soothing him until his breath was normal. Niko raised his head to look at her and gave her a warm smile.

“I usually don’t mind using a condom to have sex but…” He signed, intensely looking at her. “I don’t want to have you with a condom ever again. You’re just too delicious and I want to feel you more often.”

Eva snorted at his comment and kissed his forehead. “If that’s what you wish…” She couldn’t deny that, after all, the feeling of him bare for her was something difficult not to love. There was a feeling of peace growing inside of her chest and she signed happily while he rested his head on her breasts, hearing her heartbeat.

 

* * *

          

Robert and Niko were very close to their family, so it was only a matter of time until Eva reunited with their parents. They had set up a lunch at Robbie’s house and Eva arrived with Niko and Lara a few hours earlier to help fix everything. As soon as they entered the house, greeted by Anica, Eva heard someone approaching her and was surprised to see Niko’s mother, Ivka, someone difficult to forget. The woman was very difficult to handle at first but she had a tender heart and she seemed fond of Eva.

“I never thought I would see you again.” The older woman said, holding both of Eva’s arms. She could sense Niko behind her, a little tense.

“I could say I thought the same.” Eva answered, nervous. There was a second of apprehension as the older Kovac looked at her, as if analyzing. Then, she broke into a big grin and pulled Eva into an embrace.

“It’s good to see you again.” She said to Eva, who was trying to hug her despite the weight difference. Ivka was a very short woman and was very old by now.

“Well, hello to you too, mother!” Eva heard Niko protesting, faking a pout. She couldn’t help but smile as she saw the matriarch holding her older son, checking if he was okay and healthy. From the door next to them, she saw a head popping and recognized Robert.

“Oh, Eva! Can you help me with the chairs?”

“Sure!” Eva followed Robert into the backyard where there was a spot that Robert pointed as the place to organize the table and the chairs. They started picking the table together when Robert started talking.

“You know, I’ve never seen Niko this happy in a long time. He’s glowing.”

Eva stopped a bit and smiled at the piece of information she just received from his brother.

“It’s very much welcomed after everything that happened with the divorce.” Robert went on, trying to make this conversation as casual as possible.

“’Everything that happened?’” Eva questioned, her eyebrows raised. What was he talking about? “I thought the divorce was consensual.”

“Oh, the divorce was consensual. The reason behind it… not so much.”

They finished placing the table at a place where they wouldn’t be bothered by the sun and that let them enough space to walk. Eva wasn’t going to drop the subject.

“Niko told me the sex became…” She searched for a word. “Boring.”

Robbie let out a bitter laugh. “That’s what he told you? Eva, he’s ashamed of the reason and I find it pathetic that he didn’t share it with you.”

“Robert, spit it out already.” She was growing impatient.

“Katarina cheated on him. Niko one day walked into her kissing her lover, a gym instructor, after months of suspecting something was off. They decided to preserve their peace because of Lara, she doesn’t know what happened and they would kill you and I if that meant they would keep the secret from Lara.”

Eva was just flabbergasted at the information. She didn’t know what to answer and honestly, didn’t know even if she wanted to say something. Her mind went racing to everything he had said about his marriage and was a little hurt to come to conclusion that Niko was still too proud to tell her everything, to share his pain. He acted like he lived a fairy tale with Katarina, even if they were divorced. Robert saved her the trouble to find her words as he kept on talking.

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Katarina but I want her to stay away from him. Enough is enough.” He punctuated his words with the chairs he was placing around the table. “And I’m happy you’re here. I thought that he had lost his faith in relationship and that he was only going to live with one-night stands. God, Eva, I just hated to see him flirting.” He snorted. “He’s good at it but it made me cringe to watch him go all Casanova. I prefer him _with you_.”

She didn’t know what to answer and Robert didn’t seem he was expecting one anyway because he didn’t wait for her to say anything. He seemed to me letting things go off from his chest and telling her things he thought she needed to know. She would have never thought of _Niko_ , of all people, to be cheated on. Suddenly she felt the urge to hug him, take him into his arms and tell him she’s never going to do something like that, that even if she was afraid of saying, she _loved_ him, and that his feelings were safe with her. But she couldn’t say those things to him, right? Because love is an unpredictable thing. The only thing she could promise was that she was never going to hurt him _that_ way.

“Are you okay?” Robbie touched her arm, taking her back to reality.

“Yes, I’m just….” She started saying but trailed off.

“I know, it’s in your eyes. That’s why I love the both of you together, I don’t think either of you have any idea of the connection you have.”

“I just think he doesn’t deserve to be treated that way and I would never do something like that.” Eva reasoned, trying to hide how much that affected her.

Robert hugged her tightly and right there she knew that he knew she wouldn’t hurt him that way. She had done wrong with him before by pushing him away without an explanation but that was hardly like what Katarina did. If Eva was honest, she had felt a little threatened by the existence of a good relationship between Niko and his ex-wife but she knew they had a daughter and that it was important for them to maintain a level of respect, so she never gave much thought about that and slowly she felt relaxed about it.

Eva felt oddly at home with Niko’s family. They weren’t perfect but they held a level of complicity that she found endearing and she secretly wished her own family was like that. Her father always tried to emotionally fill the gaps her mother left but he was only one, he couldn’t do a job that required the whole family. She had an aunt from her mother’s side but they barely talked to each other. Besides that, she didn’t have a solid family background.

There, sitting at their table and watching as the parents praised their children and their grandsons, Eva felt as if maybe one day she could belong to them as well. If maybe she could call herself half Kovac, half Strauss. And then she remembered again that Katarina had cheated on Niko and wondered if perhaps he had lost his faith in love, in marriage.

_Nonsense. If he had, he wouldn’t jump into a relationship with me._

She found his eyes and he smiled fondly at her, squeezing her hand underneath the table. He mouthed something to her and she only understood when she read his lips, “ _Are you okay?”_

“Yes, I am.” She mouthed back, taking a sip from her wine. He gave her another reassuring squeeze and went back to give his attention to Anica, who was telling a tale from her modelling days. Eva was hugely fond of the woman and always admired how she kept her beautiful posture, even after she retired.

Eva didn’t realize she was so quiet before Anica gave her a toothy grin. “You are oddly quiet today, Eva.” The woman said playfully.

“Sorry, work is troubling my mind today.” Eva lied and offered a small smile. “I’m quite tired as well.”

“Did you know Eva is a lawyer?” Niko said to his parents. “She graduated in NY and worked in Wall Street.”

“Oh really?” Mateo, Niko’s father, said. “I always thought you were going to do something else. And how did that happen?”

“Well, one day I looked at myself in the mirror and I was unhappy with my profession. I’ve always wanted to study Law and there I went.” She explained.

“I guess it must quite impress people when they see such a beautiful woman being so competent.” Anica stated.

Eva gave her a light chuckle. “Only in the beginning. As I kept growing in my profession, I got a reputation. Good for some things and bad for others.”

“Oh?” Anica raised her eyebrows.

“I was known to be a “courtroom steamroller”. If I set foot on the courtroom, people knew I had already won the case. Good because people were afraid of me. Bad because people were afraid of me.” She explained and saw Robert’s impressed expression.

“That type of description just sound like you.” Ivka said, her voice a bit loud. “Your expressions are quite… hardened.”

“It comes with the job.”

“That’s the type of woman my son should marry.” Ivka raised her glass and didn’t offer any kind of explanation.

Everybody remained quiet and Eva realized they were expecting her give an answer but she wouldn’t. Instead, she smiled at the woman, trying to put all of her expectations into it. She wondered if Niko’s mother could see how much she wanted to marry Niko. He, on the other hand, seemed a bit uncomfortable.

“Well mother, I hope you don’t get ahead of me on that. I’d like to be the one to propose.” He chuckled and everybody followed him, including Eva.

Later that night, Niko hugged her while she brushed her teeth.

“I’m sorry about what my mother said of us marrying. She adores you and she’s just... eager.”

Eva spit the tooth paste from her mouth and looked at him through the mirror. “No problem, you know it. People seem eager than us to make a step forward.”

“I’m a bit eager, you know it. But I respect your decisions and if going slowly makes you feel comfortable, then I’m on board.”

“I know. Just… I want you to be honest about you and your relationship with Katarina.”

“That’s why you were so quiet during lunch?” His eyes were fixed on her, his right hand toying with her hair.

“Yes.” She answered simply.

“Robbie.” He said. He _knew_ she knew.

“Yes. But I want _you_ to tell me and we are only talking about that when you fell you can.” She washed her mouth and turned to face him. His eyes held a hesitation mixed with hurt and she didn’t want to push him, push him away from her grasp. Slowly Eva reached for him, touching his lips with her own tentatively.

She deepened the kiss and felt him pressing her against the sink, his hands on her neck. Eva broke the kiss and held his intense gaze. Before she could say anything, he whispered, “Thank you.”

They went to bed and Niko curled next to her, his head resting on her chest. She caressed his hair lovingly, sometimes placing a his to kiss forehead. Eva loved hearing him purr while she took care of him when he needed, even if they didn’t speak a word of what happened. And then, an urge came into her chest to tell him her true feelings. Fuck if they were reconnecting, fuck everything.

“Niko?” She called to see if he was still awake.

“Uh?” Eva heard him grunt against her chest.

“I’m saying this and you won’t hear me saying anytime soon.” She took her time to see if her words sank into him before she spoke again, “ _I love you, Niko.”_

Niko raised his head to look at her, his eyes wide in surprise. She could feel his heart hammering against her body and she wondered if he was trying to figure out if she was lying or joking. If he had thought about it, he quickly dismissed for he reached to kiss her passionately.

“I love you too, Eva.” He answered while his hands were sneaking into her shirt.

He removed it and wrapped his lips around one of her nipples. Eva refrained a moan from escaping her lips, suddenly aware that Lara’s room was just on the other side of the corridor. Niko’s hands travelled south and removed her pants, sneaking inside of her underwear to rub her sensitive folds.

If Eva ever had any kind of doubt about his feelings for her or if he had lost faith in relationships, it was all erased as soon as he filled her with his cock, burying himself into her core. He held her tightly, her back pressed against his chest while one hand cupped her breast and the other one guided her hips to him, imposing a sexy rhythm to their lovemaking. He didn’t go fast that night, he took his time with her, cheek pressed against her shoulder, smelling her perfume and taking in all of her.

“I could be buried inside of you forever.” He groaned on her nape, kissing her. Eva chuckled softly, trying not to kill the mood. She would happily let him bury himself into her forever.

With one of his hands playing with her nipple and the other caressing her clit, Eva couldn’t hold her climax for too long, convulsing around his cock. He made her come 3 times and on the third time, Niko succumbed to his own needs, pumping into her to release all of his pleasure.

They didn’t move much after the sex, only adjusting to a more comfortable spooning under the blankets. Eva slept feeling like her body had turned into jelly, her muscles tired from the force of her orgasms, and honestly it had been quite a long time since she slept like that.


End file.
